Childcare meant women almost twice as likely to break lockdown rules

Childcare duties pushed many women into infringing lockdown laws during the Covid pandemic, according to a new study.

Research, by social policy charity, the Nuffield Foundation, found women were almost twice as likely to flout government regulations barring people from meeting indoors to curtail the spread of coronavirus.

The report, conducted at the University of York, found more women infringed lockdown rules to be able to access childcare – with researchers warning women were “bearing the brunt” of juggling childcare and work.

Professor Joe Tomlinson, the study’s lead author, said: “The results of our study suggest there wasn’t enough consideration given to caring obligations and how the new laws would have a disproportionate impact on women and other groups facing inequalities.

“Our findings surprised us because previous studies into compliance have shown that men are much more likely to break the law than women.

“However, our results are not about women being willfully non-compliant. Many participants told us how they broke the law by enlisting grandparents to help with childcare or meeting with other mothers for support. They were forming ‘bubbles’ out of necessity before it was officially allowed.”

He explained their research found that “as a nation, the British people are very willing to follow the rules of the legal system, but it’s dangerous for governments to abuse that or take it for granted.”

“The power of law in generating compliance is something policymakers should bear in mind for future public health responses as our study highlights a deep psychological difference,” Professor Tomlinson said.

The study discovered those polled had profoundly divergent grasps of the difference between concrete lockdown laws and government recommendations – with this gap in perspective profoundly determining how prepared they were to follow rules.

Researchers, who polled almost 1,700 individuals from around the UK, found more than eight in ten wrongly assumed the “two-metre” social distancing rule was a legal obligation but in reality, it was just a recommendation.

Rob Street, the Nuffield Foundation’s director of justice, said: “During the Covid-19 crisis there was lots of discussion about why people did or did not comply with lockdown rules.

“This study illustrates how people’s willingness to comply with lockdown rules was markedly influenced by whether these rules were based in law or guidance and how they were communicated to the public.”

Researchers noted the chief reasons people obeyed lockdown rules “were fear of peer disapproval; the conviction that breaking lockdown rules was morally wrong; and a general commitment to being law-abiding”.

It comes after studies have shown women bore the brunt of childcare responsibilities, household chores and homeschooling during lockdown, irrespective of whether they were working or not – with the closure of schools and childcare providers having compounded existing inequalities in how such duties are dished out among some couples.

While the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has found the UK has one of the most expensive childcare systems in the world.