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Caring for sick children is still a woman’s job
© Jenko Ataman / Adobe Stock
The pandemic has shown that care work is still unequally distributed. At least in the care of sick children there was an upswing in 2021 – fathers often stayed at home with children. With the easing at the beginning of 2022, however, this proportion will fall again. Is taking care of sick children more a woman’s job again?
A report from the commercial health insurance company (KKH) states: “The number of working fathers in Germany who take time off to look after their sick children has fallen for the first time.” Current data would show that in the first six months of 2022, 23 percent of fathers claimed children’s sick days. In the same period of the previous year, the rate was around 25 percent. However, the proportion of mothers rose again from 75 to 77 percent.
Nationwide, the proportion of fathers who stayed at home with child illness has declined
The situation is different in the individual federal states. While in Thuringia the proportion of fathers has even increased (from 27.4 to 28.7 percent), in Hamburg, for example, it has fallen drastically from 32.7 to 28 percent. The situation is currently the same in many federal states as in the north.
Proportion of child sick days taken by fathers in 2021 and 2022.
© KKH
A possible reason for the development could be the relaxation of the corona virus this year. The normalization of daycare, school and work has meant that, on the one hand, children are no longer affected by general school closures and, on the other hand, that parents have to go back to the office regularly. It is at this point that the discrepancy between men and women comes into play.
After all, women still work far more often part-time. According to a list by “Social Policy News”, the part-time rate in 2021 was 49.1 percent for women and 12.1 percent for men. In addition, the main earner job – which is usually still done by men – is more important for family financing and therefore generally less flexible.
Fathers have stayed at home more often during the pandemic
The data from the KKH show that fathers are more likely to take child sick days due to the pandemic. In 2021 it was well over half of the men, this year only every ninth affected KKH insured person.
The rule that parents can apply for children’s sick days even if their offspring is not ill but still has to be cared for at home has been extended until 2023. During the lockdowns, the main focus was on the corona-related daycare and school closures, but quarantine also leads to home care.
The care of children in general, and especially when they are ill, is therefore no longer the responsibility of the mothers, but is still increasingly the responsibility of the mothers. Although the labor market participation of women has increased significantly over the past 30 years, many mothers do not work full-time. The most common reason is the significantly higher salary of the man, which is important for the livelihood. The unequal payment of men and women still leads to inequality in the labor market – and to women taking on unpaid care work.
Sources used: Sozialpolitik-aktuell.de, press release KKH
This article originally appeared on PARENTS.