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It's Getting Worse For Working Parents In The Pandemic – Not Better

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Working parents don’t have a monopoly on finding lockdown difficult, but as the pandemic stretches on – and with the summer holidays thrown in, for good measure – being able to do your job from home with kids around can feel increasingly difficult, if not impossible.

It’s tough. I’ve been there. I documented all the interruptions I’ve had from my kids while trying to work as a freelance journalist: ranging from having my feet stuck to the floor with tape, to having a recorder played loudly into my ear – and even Zoom calls punctuated by appearances from a naked three-year-old.

Caroline Whaley, co-founder of Shine4women, an organisation that empowers women in business, believes the long-term effects of the pandemic on mothers – and their careers – could be particularly devastating.

“Between job losses, school closures, and isolation, the ability of many dual-earner couples to both work because someone else is looking after their children is dissolving,” she tells HuffPost UK. “Many couples have had to decide which partner’s career takes a back seat. Due to lower salaries, women are frequently the ones to stand down.”

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Whaley’s fears are backed up by statistics: a study by the IFS revealed mothers are more likely than fathers to have left paid work since February, and mothers have seen a bigger proportional reduction in their hours of work than fathers. Among those doing paid work at home, women are more likely than men to be spending their work hours simultaneously trying to care for children.

And, as the government’s furlough scheme soon comes to an end, and rules on home-working change to allow firms to ask people to come into the office,...

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