What is Unpaid Work

Drawing from a questionnaire answered by 455 people during social distancing in Brazil, the chapter analyzes how individuals who worked remotely and those who did not cope with the increase in domestic and care work and how this extra work was divided in gender terms. The questionnaire indicates that the pandemic increased both domestic and care activities, with the former being more frequent for women and those under remote work. In general, this was not accompanied by a better division of these activities across sexes as women remained mainly responsible for them. Nevertheless, some improvements in the division of the domestic work were observed amongst those under remote work. However, when such a rebalance does not occur, remote work tends to be associated with an increase in women's overburdening.