Paid and Unpaid Work in Pandemic Times. A Study on the Division of Household Labour and the Subjective Well-Being of Working Mothers in Italy

This article draws on data from a web-based survey carried out in Italy between May and June 2020 to explore how lockdown measures affected individual well-being, family life and the use of time for paid/unpaid work. Our analysis focuses on working mothers with minor children living in couples. Descriptive results show that lockdown measures had a considerable impact on the total workload borne by women, while their male partners only slightly increased their contribution to childcare and domestic chores. The regression analysis on the relationship be-tween mothers’ satisfaction with the division of unpaid family work and their sub-jective well-being show that mothers who reported lower satisfaction felt more fa-tigued and stressed in relation to housework, childcare and paid work during the lockdown.