Do Emergencies Reward Those in Favor of Gender Equality? The Role of Gender Essentialism on Household Workload and Happiness during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly increased the stress of individuals, couples and families in terms of health, sexual functioning, job loss, and lost wages. However, less is known about how it has affected gender inequality in housework and its consequences in terms of psychological well-being. In this article, we aimed to deepen knowledge on this topic by conducting a secondary analysis of data collected as part of the ResPOnsE COVID-19 project. To do so, we analyzed the responses of a quota sample of the Italian population (N = 2,013), surveyed online between April and July 2020 using a rolling-cross section approach, to examine the relationships between gender, psychological gender essentialism, perceived increase in housework, and happiness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A preliminary unconditional model showed that happiness did not vary depending on the day of data collection. A moderated-mediated structural equation model using participants’ age, education, geopolitical area of residence, being vs. not being in a partnership, and having vs. not having sons and daughters as control variables showed that being a woman was positively associated with perceived increase in housework only among women with low levels of gender essentialism. Moreover, perceived increase in housework hours showed a positive association with happiness. The strengths, limitations, and future developments of this study are discussed.