COVID-19 and the Centrality of Care: Creating a Resilient and Equitable Society

"The centrality of care to social and economic life has been underscored by the Covid-19 pandemic. The overarching aim of this project is to explore the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the gendered and intersectional distribution of unpaid care work and to understand the extent of pandemic-induced (temporary) shifts in care roles within heterosexual households in Scotland. In line with the project call, the objectives are:
• To undertake a rapid review of the academic and ‘grey’ literature on Covid-19 and the gendered distribution of unpaid care work and how this is shaped across gender and other intersecting dimensions of social positionality (such as age, ethnicity, socio-economic background and so on).
• To supplement the rapid review, exploratory qualitative interviews with 8-10 couples will also be undertaken. This small number of pilot interviews will allow for a richer insight into the ‘lived’ experiences of households in Scotland, complementing the mostly quantitative studies undertaken in this research area during the pandemic. This will provide learnings through people’s lived experiences into how policy and interventions might be harnessed to facilitate ‘deeper’ shifts in attitudes and social norms to support longer-terms changes in the gendered distribution of care work and to creating a more inclusive and resilient Scotland.
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