Women working from home spend even more time looking after their children, German study finds

Women that work from home spend even more time looking after their children compared to men, a Germany study suggests.

While flexible working practices were in theory, supposed to help even out the parenting between mothers and fathers, it seems to have instead entrenched old-fashioned gender roles.

The research, published by Hans Böckler foundation, discovered fathers who choose when and where they work are most likely to evade taking care of their children.

Alternatively, men will work between two and four extra hours a week.

Mothers, meanwhile, are most often left with ‘double burden’ and spend three more hours on childcare when working from home, The Times reported.

The study – published this month – also suggested that men and women who had flexible hours were not better rested or given more free leisure time as they were often found to work even harder. 

 It showed that the amount of time a German woman spent on caring for her children on average has barely decreased, falling only 1.5 hours from 2001 to 21 hours in 2016 (file photo)

Yvonne Lott, the foundation’s expert on gender and working hours, studied survey date from almost 3,000 German mothers and fathers gathered between 2003 and 2016. 

It showed that the amount of time a German woman spent on caring for her children on average has barely decreased, falling only 1.5 hours from 2001 to 21 hours in 2016.

In comparison, fathers manage to spend just 8.6 hours on childcare now, a slight increase from their 7.3 in 2001.

‘Fathers use working from home and self-determined working hours exclusively to put in markedly more time on the job,’ Dr Lott wrote.

‘When they work from home they work on average for two extra hours a week. With flexitime they even invest a little less time in looking after their children.’