SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
Flensburg University, Flensburg, Germany.
PLoS One. 2022 Jun 13;17(6):e0266393. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266393. eCollection 2022.
Before the pandemic, many employers were hesitant to offer their employees the option of working from home. However, remote working has been widely adopted during the pandemic as one of the key methods of controlling the spread of the virus. The measure encountered a widespread acceptance and it is likely that the demand for work from home as a flexible work arrangement will persist also after the pandemic has ended. Although numerous studies have addressed the role of remote work during this crisis, as of yet we lack thorough research jointly addressing the question on how occupations/job characteristics on the one hand and family/household responsibilities on the other are associated with the propensity of working from home, and how gender cuts across those aspects. Using the COVID-19 survey of the German Family Panel (pairfam), covering the peak of the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, together with information from pairfam panel waves conducted before the pandemic, as well as a special evaluation of the 2019 German Labor Force Survey, we are able to address this gap. Employing linear probability models on a sample of 1,414 men (N = 641) and women (N = 773), our results show that occupational traits, especially the gender composition of an occupation, are an important predictor for working from home. Women employed in female-dominated occupations are less often in a position to work from home. Furthermore, our study confirms that it is particularly the highly educated, as well as those who work in high-prestige occupations, who are able to work from home. Family configurations and care obligations are less influential upon the transition to homeworking, even in times of an unprecedented situation of school and daycare closures and increased parental responsibilities for children's (early) education.
在大流行之前，许多雇主都不愿意让员工选择远程办公。然而，远程办公在大流行期间已被广泛采用，是控制病毒传播的关键方法之一。这种措施得到了广泛的认可，而且很可能在大流行结束后，人们对远程办公这种灵活工作安排的需求仍将持续。虽然有许多研究探讨了远程办公在这场危机中的作用，但迄今为止，我们缺乏全面的研究，共同探讨一方面职业/工作特征和另一方面家庭/家务责任与远程办公倾向之间的关系，以及性别如何跨越这些方面。我们使用了德国家庭面板（pairfam）的 COVID-19 调查数据，该调查涵盖了 2020 年第一波大流行的高峰期，以及大流行前进行的 pairfam 面板波次的数据，以及对 2019 年德国劳动力调查的特殊评估，我们能够填补这一空白。我们在一个由 1414 名男性（N = 641）和女性（N = 773）组成的样本上使用线性概率模型，结果表明职业特征，特别是职业的性别构成，是远程办公的一个重要预测因素。从事女性主导职业的女性远程办公的可能性较小。此外，我们的研究证实，特别是高学历者，以及从事高声望职业的人，能够远程办公。家庭配置和照顾义务对过渡到远程办公的影响较小，即使在学校和日托关闭以及父母对儿童（早期）教育的责任增加的前所未有的情况下也是如此。
