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Work-from-home during COVID-19: Accounting for the care economy to build back better

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2023

Fiona Jenkins  and
Julie Smith Open the ORCID record for Julie Smith [Opens in a new window]
Fiona Jenkins
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Australia
Julie Smith*
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Australia
*
Julie Smith, Research School of Population Health, College of Health & Medicine, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Email: julie.smith@anu.edu.au
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Abstract

In the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s dwellings suddenly became a predominant site of economic activity. We argue that, predictably, policy-makers and employers took the home for granted as a background support of economic life. Acting as if home is a cost-less resource that is free for appropriation in an emergency, ignoring how home functions as a site of gendered relations of care and labour, and assuming home is a largely harmonious site, all shaped the invisibility of the imposition. Taking employee flexibility for granted and presenting work-from-home as a privilege offered by generous employers assumed rapid adaptation. As Australia emerges from lockdown, ‘building back better’ to meet future shocks entails better supporting adaptive capabilities of workers in the care economy, and of homes that have likewise played an unacknowledged role as buffer and shelter for the economy. Investing in infrastructure capable of providing a more equitable basis for future resilience is urgent to reap the benefits that work-from-home offers. This article points to the need for rethinking public investment and infrastructure priorities for economic recovery and reconstruction in the light of a gender perspective on COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ experience.

Keywords

E01E22J24Altruismcare economychildcareCOVID-19gender relationshousehold capitalnational income accountingnonmarket workwork-from-home
Type
Original Articles
Information
The Economic and Labour Relations Review , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 22 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020

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