Pandemic Makes Evident 'Grotesque' Gender Inequality In Household Work

Brigid Schulte was interviewed by Terry Gross, host of NPR’s Fresh Air, about how the pandemic is revealing the unequal division of labor in the home and how to make it more equal:

COVID-19 has transformed home life — turning kitchen tables into home offices and classrooms and putting a spotlight on the countless household tasks typically performed by women. Brigid Schulte says the pandemic has laid bare the "grotesque inequality" that exists within many families.

"There's been a lot of invisible labor that women have done, that people, particularly men — even in the same household — haven't been aware of or haven't paid attention to," she says.

Now that more couples are working from home, Schulte says, it's impossible to ignore "the fact that women bear so much more of the burden of child care and housework."