When it comes to using digital technology for both work and family, women are at greater risk of “digital overload” than men, according to a new study led by Lancaster University.

The study has important implications for the unequal distribution of digital work between the sexes, highlighting that women use information and communication technologies (ICT) more frequently than men in both their professional and private lives.

This “digital double burden” of work and family increases the potential risk of “digital overload and burnout” for women.

The new research, led by Professor Yang Hu of Lancaster University in collaboration with Professor Yue Qian of the University of British Columbia in Canada, examines gender and digital work in 29 countries and was published in the journal Community, Work & Family.

Digital work involves using a variety of digital tools and platforms such as Zoom and WhatsApp to complete everyday work and household tasks.

As the pandemic has significantly accelerated the progress of digitalization, people are increasingly and extensively using ICT for professional and family communication after COVID-19.

Because frequent use of ICT takes time and effort, it represents a new form of work. Our study examined gender inequalities in the performance of such digital work.”

Yang Hu, Professor, Lancaster University

The cross-country study uses the latest data from the European Social Survey and examines how people in 29 countries (including the UK) maintain digital communication for work and family.

They restricted the sample to 6,654 employed respondents aged 30–59 who have both at least one child (aged 12 or older) and at least one living parent to examine respondents’ ICT use for both work and family.

They found out:

• A pronounced “digital double burden” between work and family: women are 1.6 times more likely than men to be confronted with simultaneous digital communication at work and at home.

• The traditional gender-specific division of labor in work and family life also continues when it comes to performing digital work. For example, women are 31% less likely than men to engage in a lot of digital communication exclusively for work.

• In the UK, 42% of respondents have a medium to high digital double load between work and family, which is below the average of 48% in the 29 countries surveyed. Respondents from the UK are therefore less burdened by the double digital (communication) load between work and family than, for example, respondents from Norway (59%), Spain (54%) and Serbia (65%).

• Respondents from the UK have one of the highest rates of exclusively work-related digital communication: 30% use a high proportion of digital (communicative) work only for work, but not in family life. This is one of the highest figures in the 29 countries surveyed (after Israel with 31%).

“Politicians, educators and practitioners in many societies are investing heavily in building digital capacity worldwide,” said Professor Hu.

“Our results show that among people with higher digital literacy and in countries where people use the Internet more intensively, women in particular suffer from the ‘digital double burden’ more often than men.”

Professor Qian added: “The findings call on policymakers, educators and practitioners to incorporate gender equality considerations in their digital capacity building efforts. Improving women’s digital literacy should not come at the expense of managing the heavy digital burden in both work and family life.”

Due to the pandemic, working from home is becoming more and more widespread.

The study’s results also show that frequent working from home exacerbates the “digital double burden” that falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women.

While working from home offers employees the flexibility to balance work and family responsibilities, it also creates a crucial new form of gender inequality in the digital world of work.