Social report on employment and roles in families

The current Baden-Württemberg social report provides important insights into the different burdens of corona pandemic and its effects on mothers and fathers. Pandemic has disclosed the predominantly rather traditional distribution of roles within the family and partially reinforced - the country wants to counteract this.

The current edition of the of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Integration Baden-Württemberg from Family research is written, dedicated The question of how Corona pandemic has changed the everyday life of families. Under the title Stress test-The effects of corona pandemic on employment and roles in families “(PDF) The social report shows how the Corona pandemic has had an impact on the employment of parents and to what extent mothers and fathers were affected differently from the effects. It turns out that parents with little income or lower social status in particular were affected by impairments of employment and mothers in turn were subjected to higher income and employment risks than fathers.

effects on the distribution of roles in the family

The report also explains how the special circumstances and in particular the closure of educational institutions have influenced the distribution of roles between the sexes and what consequences the pandemic had for the sensation of stress of the parents. The data indicates that the roles in most families have not changed fundamentally and that women continue to do the majority of housework and childcare, as they did before pandemic. But fathers were also more involved in childcare than before the pandemic, especially due to changed framework conditions such as home office or short -time work.

"The results have once again made it clear to us that the reconciliation of family, care and work a decisive factor for the IST Equality of women and men is the state and society that the previous progress is not in importance. said the Minister of Social Affairs man luca .

families in special life situations

The situation of families in special life situations is based on interviews with representatives of the Association of single mothers and fathers in Baden-Württemberg (Vamv-bw) and the Verein Zwertwind e. V , an association for families with children with disabilities. A lot of support has been lost with pandemic and parents were often on their own. This situation has brought many parents, children and young people to their limits - especially parents who were also professionally demanded.

"The social report is rightly concerned with single parents and families with children with disabilities. With specific regulations - for example in the context of emergency care - we tried to take these special needs into account. Especially in children with severe disabilities, this was always a complex weighing process, since they are not only dependent on support, but often also belong to groups," said Lucha, according to Lucha Next.

improvement of the compatibility of family and work for both genders

From the results of the BW social report and the experience of the parents are derived from family and equality policy recommendations to improve the compatibility of family and work for both genders.

"Every crisis also offers opportunities. We will therefore use the analysis to sharpen our eyes at which realignment. Our task is now to accept the challenges outlined and to develop suitable solutions for better and gender compatibility of family and work," said Minister Manne Lucha.

The social report BW appears as part of a Family policy discussions presented on 5. April 2022.

Social Report BW 4-2021: Compatibility in the stress test-The effects of corona pandemic on employment and roles in families (PDF)