Telework and domestic organizations since the outbreak of COVID-19 in France, Sweden and Switzerland

While the massive diffusion of telework in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic initially appeared to favour a more equal division of labour between the members of a couple, several studies have called this hypothesis into question, pointing instead to a maintenance or even an accentuation of inequalities between women and men working from home. The aim of this article is to provide an understanding of the mechanisms explaining this social fact, based on a qualitative survey conducted in France, Sweden and Switzerland between October 2020 and June 2021 among 33 heterosexual families in which at least one of the two members of the dual-earner couple worked mainly from home from March 2020. We successively document two phenomena observed transnationally: the absence of evolution in domestic arrangements among teleworking couples, no matter how gendered their gender division of work might be, and the reinforcement of domestic assignment within households where only women telework. Finally, in the light of male telework and in the Swedish case in particular, we suggest that a more egalitarian division of labour is possible, if it is supported by an institutional framework and equality practices that simultaneously favour mens domestic and parental involvement and womens professional commitment.