In the UK, as COVID-19 pandemic lockdown closed schools and childcare facilities, people had to spent more time on unpaid work during this time than before. Hupkau and Petrongolo (2020) researched on the effects of COVID-19 crisis on unpaid work for men and women. In terms of household work, they found that Weekly hours spent by men on housework increased from 6.46 in 2016–17 to 9.78 in 2020, while women’s hours raised from 14.11 to 15.83. Since the increase was higher for men, gender gap in housework decreased from 7.65 to 6.05 hours but remained significant.
In the aspect of childcare, the finding is that from 2014-15 to 2020, In families with children, mothers' weekly childcare hours raised from 16.99 to 26.5, and fathers' hours raised from 7.81 to 14.76. However, mothers' childcare time increases more than fathers, with a corresponding increase in gender differential from 9.18 hours to 11.74 hours. (Hupkau and Petrongolo, 2020)
In conclusion, although men and women both spent more time on unpaid work during the pandemic, the gender gaps in unpaid housework and childcare remained significant, meaning that women still shoulder more burden of unpaid work.