Online Panel Survey of Gender Equality and Socioeconomic Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The survey focuses on the COVID-19 crisis and its impacts on gender equality regarding the labour market situation, work–life balance and the role that recovery measures and public policies may have had in supporting women and men. The survey provides new knowledge on the multifaceted impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic from a socioeconomic point of view. The survey covered the following main research topics: changes in household arrangements concerning paid work and unpaid care, changes in work arrangements since the start of the pandemic, work–life balance (including the use of available institutional instruments to deal with the work–life balance challenges since the start of the pandemic). The respondents were selected using a quota sample from an online access panel (mainly Cint). In the survey period 28.06.2021 to 25.07.2021, 42300 people between the ages of 20 and 64 living in the 27 EU Member States were surveyed in online interviews (CAWI).<br>General information: region; household size; relationship to the people in the household; number of children in the household younger than 1 year old, 1 to 2 years old, 3 to 6 years old, 7 to 11 years old, 12 to 17 years old, and 18 years and older; did anyone move into or out of the household for a period lasting at least 1 months since the start of the pandemic (no change, return of adult children, parents or other relatives moved in, the respondent moved in with parents or other relatives, respondent moved in with partner, partner left the shared home, respondent left the shard home, other); respondent provides unpaid care towards children or grandchildren that are not living in the household; respondent provides unpaid care towards older people or people with limitations due to health problems and/ or with disabilities; distribution of the following tasks: shopping for groceries, housework chores, financial and administrative matters, management and planning of tasks; satisfaction with the current distribution between respondent and partner/ spouse of the housework chores and tasks; change of the distribution of housework chores and tasks since the start of the pandemic; distribution of the following tasks before the pandemic started: shopping for groceries, housework chores, financial and administrative matters, management and planning of tasks; hours per week the respondent is involved in household chores and tasks nowadays and before the pandemic started; satisfaction with the amount of time for household chores and tasks; person in the household nowadays generally providing care for older people or people with limitations due to health problems and/ or with disabilities; satisfaction with the current distribution with the respondent and partner/ spouse; change or distribution since the start of the pandemic; person in the household that generally provided care for older people with limitations before the pandemic started; hours per week the respondent is involved in caring for older people nowadays and before the pandemic started; satisfaction with the amount of time the respondent currently spends in caring for older people; distribution of childcare of children between 0 and 11 years in the household nowadays (care and supervision, assistance with school tasks and/ or homeschooling, playing or doing activities, managing schedules and activities); satisfaction with the current distribution of childcare between respondent and partner/ spouse; change of distribution since the start of the pandemic; distribution of childcare (for children and grandchildren 0-11 years old, and between 12 and 17 years) before the pandemic started; hours per week the respondent is involved in childcare nowadays and before the pandemic started (for children and grandchildren 0-11 years old, and between 12 and 17 years); satisfaction with the amount of time currently spend in childcare in the last 2 working weeks, and before the start of the pandemic.

Paid work: main job; sector; employment contract; working in private/ public or other sector; kind of employment in main job before the pandemic started; working hours per week nowadays and before the pandemic started; frequency of working from home nowadays, and before the pandemic started; sharing of space for working/ of equipment to do the work with other members of the household; working hours without being interrupted by children, by partner/ spouse or other relative, by another person, and by the need to accomplish housework tasks; working times set before the start of the pandemic; changes in working time arrangements since the start of the pandemic (e.g. reduced working times/changed working schedule to take care of children and/ or relatives, etc.); extent of changes of work experience since the start of the pandemic (e.g. prospects for career advancement in the near future have decreased, it became easier to combine family/ personal life and work obligations, expectation to work as much or even more than before the start of the pandemic, etc.); feeling at work over the last two weeks: how well handled the responsibilities and daily demands, performed without mistakes, got things done on time, and kept focus and concentration on tasks.

Well-being: how often during the last two weeks felt lonely, guilty, stressed, depressed, tired, and anxious; main job: how often in the last two weeks kept worrying about work when not working, felt too tired after work to do some of the household activities which need to be done, found that job prevented from giving the time wanted to the family, found it difficult to concentrate on the job because of family responsibilities, found that family responsibilities prevented from giving the time to the job, found that the job prevented from giving the time wanted for oneself); frequency of different activities in the last two weeks (attended a course or public event not job related, practiced sports, participated in voluntary organizations activity, attended religious services, spent time on hobbies, socialized outside the immediate household or co-workers).

Services and support: frequency of utilization of the following services and other external resources for childcare (nowadays and before the pandemic started): day-care centre/ school, after-school programme(s) and other extracurricular activities, nanny or babysitter, nurse or social worker, grandparents or other relatives, other adults (e.g. neighbors, friends, etc.); frequency of utilization of the following external services and resources for the care of older people or people with limitations due to health problems and/ or with disabilities (nowadays and before the pandemic started): residential long-term care facilities/ institutions, day-care centre, home-based personal care workers, domestic cleaners and helpers, nurse and/ or healthcare assistants, social workers, relatives, neighbors, friends; impact on unpaid care burden due to governmental measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 (partial or full closure of schools and/ or childcare services, move to online schooling and/ or lectures, partial or full closure of day-care services for older people or people with limitations to health problems and/ or with disabilities, limitation of visits to care services, limitation of local movement, limitation of social contact, partial or full closure of restaurants and cafes/ bars, partial or full closure of public transport); receipt of different benefits and support since the start of the pandemic (e.g. unemployment benefit, governmental wage support, governmental financial support for parents and carers, etc.); to what extent did the receipt of leave or in-kind forms of support help to relieve the unpaid care workload; to what extent did the receipt of financial support help the personal economic situation.

Demography: sex; year of birth; born in the country of interview; country of birth (migration background); year of immigration; changes in personal income since the start of the pandemic; assessment of own contribution to the household income compared to partners contribution nowadays, and before the pandemic started; total household monthly income (income deciles); highest educational level; father and/ or mother born in the country; information on partner/ spouse: sex of partner/ spouse; partner is born in the country of interview; highest educational level of partner/ spouse; current situation of partner/ spouse; sector of partner’s main job; partner’s situation before the pandemic started; working hours per week of partner/ spouse nowadays and before the pandemic started; frequency of working from home nowadays and before the pandemic started.

Additionally coded were: case-ID; interview identifier for each country, interview duration; numeric country code; protocol order, region-ID; age of respondent; age classification; sex and age classification; households with minor children; education (ISCED) of respondent; weighting variable for ISCED; population size weight, weight.