How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Family Relations?
-A Study on Domestic Work and Child Raising in Chinese Double-income Families-
Qiong Meng
Department of Sociology
Graduate School
Kyung Hee University
The impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic ...
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Family Relations?
-A Study on Domestic Work and Child Raising in Chinese Double-income Families-
Qiong Meng
Department of Sociology
Graduate School
Kyung Hee University
The impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has affected different groups and strata in society. Because of gender division and stereotype, women face more difficulties and challenges under the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only in China, but also in many countries, the front-line medical care, the cleaners working in hospitals and the caregivers serving in the community are mostly women. The pandemic in COVID-19 not only increases their work pressure, but also increases their risk of virus infection through long-term contact with patients.With China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy and the marketization of welfare such as education, housing and medical care, the public and private sectors are gradually separated. Families have lost their economic and welfare support and collective warmth, and family members must depend on each other economically, emotionally and spiritually. Especially, the work-family conflict of women in urban dual-worker families is becoming more and more acute, and the cost of childcare is rising.We can see that the dual-employee families in Chinese cities have strong intergenerational dependence on the dual-family system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, Chinese intensive motherhood is reflected incisively and vividly in the situation of forced home isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic in COVID-19, people were forced to return to their families because of the isolation at home. Under the cramped space, the gender division of labor among families became prominent, and there was no hiding in face-to-face daily life.In the society affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, various risks and instability are increasing, social welfare is weak, and individuals must rely on their own families, while the big family provides a support network for individuals in economy and care to a certain extent.
Because of the necessity and repetitiveness of housework in daily life and its key position in social reproduction, we need to investigate the social space contained in the interactions and events in closed families.However, society seldom analyzes the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on women from the perspective of gender. Therefore, this paper uses the gender theory to reveal the pressure brought by the gender division of labor to professional women in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.In addition, this paper discusses the conflicts and connections between family members in the daily reality under the background of COVID-19 pandemic from the individualized perspective of risk theory; In this study, the professional women from dual-employee families in Chinese cities are taken as the main research objects, and the relationship between the professional women and the overall social situation behind various phenomena of family life during the COVID-19 pandemic is analyzed in a special situation of forced return to the family under the background of pandemic isolation.Through interviews, we find that:
First of all, the risks brought by the COVID-19 pandemic are not only closely related to individual life, but also the changes of individual lifestyle, personal experience, and original gender identity and family role, and extend from the society to the family, embedding individual actions into the social system.Home segregation makes all kinds of chaos and risks hidden in daily life become more prominent. Everyone seems to be experiencing the same home segregation. Respondents have more or less "normal" expectations for the gender division of labor in the family. During the isolation period of the COVID-19 pandemic, various contradictions were concentrated and enlarged in the imprisoned space, and the potential fragility of intimate relationships became more sensitive. Sexual conflicts, work and family can not be balanced, and contradictions and conflicts arising from intergenerational cooperative parenting.
Second, the increased burden of housework and care during the pandemic in COVID-19 put women in an unequal family status, and the differences between men and women in housework and care continued. Through interviews, it was found that more than half of the professional women were the main bearers of housework during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the amount of housework for women was much larger than that for men.Even if men work at home and women go out to work, it actually gives men more opportunities to take care of children. Although the household segregation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic makes the gender division of housework "invisible and inexhaustible" visible in some families, the male staying at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not fundamentally changed the original gender division of housework.
Third, both women who work at home and those who need to go out to work (anti-epidemic personnel) bear the economic burden brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to a certain extent. Secondly, the time of women working at home and working outside the home is generally occupied by housework and childcare such as "second shift" and "third shift".During the online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, children's internet addiction, negative content exposure, physical and mental health damage, academic performance decline and other risks frequently occur. The COVID-19 pandemic makes "external risks" and "manufactured risks" firmly circle in the place of "home".When society expects women to take on more housework, the pandemic may increase the burden of housework and childcare for mothers. Mothers, as health care workers, not only have to bear the burden of housework and childcare during the pandemic in COVID-19.Compared with women who work at home, women who need to go out to work bear the heavy physical burden caused by the increased workload during the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge psychological burden of worrying about infection of themselves and their family members in the working environment with high infection risk.And while they stick to their posts during the COVID-19 pandemic, they often have to bear the pain that they can't fulfill their "motherhood". This emotional "dilemma" truly reflects the conflict between women in the workplace and their families.
How the COVID-19 Pandemic Changed Family Relations?
-A Study on Domestic Work and Child Raising in Chinese Double-income Families-
Qiong Meng
Department of Sociology
Graduate School
Kyung Hee University
The impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has affected different groups and strata in society. Because of gender division and stereotype, women face more difficulties and challenges under the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only in China, but also in many countries, the front-line medical care, the cleaners working in hospitals and the caregivers serving in the community are mostly women. The pandemic in COVID-19 not only increases their work pressure, but also increases their risk of virus infection through long-term contact with patients.With China's transition from a planned economy to a market economy and the marketization of welfare such as education, housing and medical care, the public and private sectors are gradually separated. Families have lost their economic and welfare support and collective warmth, and family members must depend on each other economically, emotionally and spiritually. Especially, the work-family conflict of women in urban dual-worker families is becoming more and more acute, and the cost of childcare is rising.We can see that the dual-employee families in Chinese cities have strong intergenerational dependence on the dual-family system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, Chinese intensive motherhood is reflected incisively and vividly in the situation of forced home isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic in COVID-19, people were forced to return to their families because of the isolation at home. Under the cramped space, the gender division of labor among families became prominent, and there was no hiding in face-to-face daily life.In the society affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, various risks and instability are increasing, social welfare is weak, and individuals must rely on their own families, while the big family provides a support network for individuals in economy and care to a certain extent.
Because of the necessity and repetitiveness of housework in daily life and its key position in social reproduction, we need to investigate the social space contained in the interactions and events in closed families.However, society seldom analyzes the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on women from the perspective of gender. Therefore, this paper uses the gender theory to reveal the pressure brought by the gender division of labor to professional women in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.In addition, this paper discusses the conflicts and connections between family members in the daily reality under the background of COVID-19 pandemic from the individualized perspective of risk theory; In this study, the professional women from dual-employee families in Chinese cities are taken as the main research objects, and the relationship between the professional women and the overall social situation behind various phenomena of family life during the COVID-19 pandemic is analyzed in a special situation of forced return to the family under the background of pandemic isolation.Through interviews, we find that:
First of all, the risks brought by the COVID-19 pandemic are not only closely related to individual life, but also the changes of individual lifestyle, personal experience, and original gender identity and family role, and extend from the society to the family, embedding individual actions into the social system.Home segregation makes all kinds of chaos and risks hidden in daily life become more prominent. Everyone seems to be experiencing the same home segregation. Respondents have more or less "normal" expectations for the gender division of labor in the family. During the isolation period of the COVID-19 pandemic, various contradictions were concentrated and enlarged in the imprisoned space, and the potential fragility of intimate relationships became more sensitive. Sexual conflicts, work and family can not be balanced, and contradictions and conflicts arising from intergenerational cooperative parenting.
Second, the increased burden of housework and care during the pandemic in COVID-19 put women in an unequal family status, and the differences between men and women in housework and care continued. Through interviews, it was found that more than half of the professional women were the main bearers of housework during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the amount of housework for women was much larger than that for men.Even if men work at home and women go out to work, it actually gives men more opportunities to take care of children. Although the household segregation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic makes the gender division of housework "invisible and inexhaustible" visible in some families, the male staying at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic has not fundamentally changed the original gender division of housework.
Third, both women who work at home and those who need to go out to work (anti-epidemic personnel) bear the economic burden brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to a certain extent. Secondly, the time of women working at home and working outside the home is generally occupied by housework and childcare such as "second shift" and "third shift".During the online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, children's internet addiction, negative content exposure, physical and mental health damage, academic performance decline and other risks frequently occur. The COVID-19 pandemic makes "external risks" and "manufactured risks" firmly circle in the place of "home".When society expects women to take on more housework, the pandemic may increase the burden of housework and childcare for mothers. Mothers, as health care workers, not only have to bear the burden of housework and childcare during the pandemic in COVID-19.Compared with women who work at home, women who need to go out to work bear the heavy physical burden caused by the increased workload during the COVID-19 pandemic and the huge psychological burden of worrying about infection of themselves and their family members in the working environment with high infection risk.And while they stick to their posts during the COVID-19 pandemic, they often have to bear the pain that they can't fulfill their "motherhood". This emotional "dilemma" truly reflects the conflict between women in the workplace and their families.
주제어
#COVID-19 pandemic
#Individualization
#Motherhood
#Double-income Family
#Gender division
※ AI-Helper는 부적절한 답변을 할 수 있습니다.