A Room of One’s Own. Work from Home and the Gendered Allocation of Time

Pre-print, Working paper: The traditional specialization of men in paid work and women in housework is rooted in the spatial separation of these activities. We examine the possible consequences of the recent expansion of Work from Home (WfH) for the gendered allocation of time. We focus on the time devoted to housework by men and women who work from home versus at the workplace, before and after the Covid pandemic. Using data on several thousand workers drawn from the American Time Use Survey, we find that the gender gap in unpaid work has declined by about 27 minutes per day, i.e. by about 40% for remote workers. Among those, women now spend more time on paid work and less on unpaid work, whereas men do more household chores.

Author(s)

Claudia Senik, Elena Stancanelli

Date of publication
  • 2025
Keywords JEL
J2 J22 Z22
Keywords
  • Work from Home
  • Time Use
  • Household Work
  • Gender
Internal reference
  • PSE Working Papers n°2025-13
Pages
  • 27 p.
Version
  • 2