Married Life, Gender and Care in the Couple in Times of COVID-19 in the Metropolitan Areas of Colima and Guadalajara, Mexico

Abstract

In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended social distancing as a measure to reduce the rate at which the virus SARS-COV-2 spreads. One of the consequences of this measure was the shutting down of education centers and the significant increase in remote work (CEPAL, 2020c). Home confinement may be creating, in areas of intimacy, situations of tension, negotiation and conflict, which, in association to the uncertainty produced by the pandemic, must be identified and analyzed to produce pertinent and timely knowledge against an unprecedented problem that surpasses the field of health and confronts the daily lives of our populations.

Considering this situation, a virtual survey was conducted on the first week in May 2020 using Google Forms in the Metropolitan Area of Guadalajara (AMG) and the Metropolitan Zone of Colima (ZMC) in order to find how the dimensions of married life, gender and mutual care roles have been disrupted in the intimacy of heterosexual couples during the lockdown caused by the covid-19 pandemic. This investigation allows us to conclude that the intimacy of the heterosexual couples surveyed shows that married couples living together for over 10 years had conflicts but did not consider divorce or separation as a way out, whereas single men and women did consider it more; single people who did not live together –particularly in the zmc –were the most affected by the confinement and made more traditional arrangements than the same group in the amg, and having common interests and goals and the lack of love were key elements that affected the intimacy of the couples. On the other hand, our findings show that gender roles continue to be, in both cities, one of the spheres of public and private life most widely resorted to in emerging and pressing situations, such as the one derived from the pandemic, situations that are impossible to elude and that have a direct impact on the equal conditions between men and women. Finally, regarding the mutual care of the couple, the reproduction of material/economic care by the men stands out along with the feminization of health and emotional care by the women. However, young couples display interesting trends towards a greater involvement of both women and men in health and emotional care tasks in times of confinement.