The coronavirus crisis has led to an increased – although so far mostly symbolic – appreciation of (paid and unpaid) reproductive work traditionally dominated by women, such as care work (for the sick, but also for the very young and very old), education (home schooling) or food preparation. As people increasingly moved to work from home, the modern separation between the economy and the household has collapsed and therefore large parts of society have realized that this work is not only badly paid, but also often quite challenging or even outright dangerous. Correspondingly, we are hearing many calls for a positive re-evaluation of reproductive work after the crisis, even by mainstream politicians. Is this only temporary or does it lead to a permanent change with regard to the type of work?

Political economy and reproductive work

Political economy work on gender relations can assist us in answering this question. First, it points towards the fact that women do most of reproductive work in the household. Women spend upon average about 201 days of unpaid care work during a year, while men spend 64 days (Lokot and Bhatia, 2020: 1). Reproductive work often is ‘invisible’ in official economic data. Still it is as vital as the formal economy and indispensable for the survival of our societies. Moreover, the unequal distribution of reproductive work is not only a problem for equitable gender relations, but also has massive repercussions in terms of lost wages, social security benefits and career opportunities for those that perform the lion's share of this work. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of this work very clearly. Does it also lead to a more fair distribution?

Second, political economy work on gender relations highlights the deep institutional hurdles that have to be overcome in order to ensure a higher appreciation of reproductive work outside families (for example, in hospitals). Again, this work is mainly borne by women that constitute about 70 per cent of workers in health and social care globally (Lokot and Bhatia, 2020: 1). This work usually does not pay well and very often suffers from unattractive work conditions. In part, this stems from highly problematic social attributions that, for example, argue that this work does not require particularly high skills.