2022
Wie Mütter und Väter zwei unterschiedliche Pandemien erlebten / How mothers and fathers lived through two different pandemics
Country/area: Germany
Organisation: rbb24
Organisation size: Big
Publication date: 08/09/2021
Credit: Haluka Maier-Borst, Sophia Bernert, Sophia Mersmann
Biography:
The rbb|24 data team has been around for more than five years, Starting as a unit that was mostly about data wrangling, it has evolved into a team that tries to tell story with tools only available on the web.
Project description:
First, we wanted to figure out how parenting roles have changed during the lockdowns. Have mothers been pushed more into traditional roles? Or did fathers step up to the occation? And the second thing is that we wanted to do more than just r We showed that both was true. Yes, fathers worked more or less the same amount of extra hours in the household as did mothers. But given the fact that women did much more care work before the pandemic, the extra 3 hours per day meant for a lot of them being pushed into a corner. Being
Impact reached:
We showed that both of the early hypotheses were true. Yes, fathers worked more or less the same amount of extra hours in the household as mothers. But given the fact that women did much more care work before the pandemic, the extra three hours per day meant for a lot of women felt being pushed into a corner. Being reduced to a mother and house wife role.
Telling these outcomes in an interactive narration was what made the difference. Mothers told us that they felt seen and understood rather than just seeing numbers that reflect their struggle in an abstract way. And the project also sparked a debate about how to reduce the burdens of lockdowns for parents and especially mothers.
Techniques/technologies used:
We used Python Pandas for the data analysis with the data from multiple studies and for first rough drafts of the visualization.
And we used Javascript React for creating the actual visualization and the scroll effect that changes the narrative depending on where the text block is.
What was the hardest part of this project?
The hardest part was to create a story line that reflects the numbers but doesn’t feel like a cloze test result. For this to happen, we mixed data journalism with traditional reporting. We talked to parents who lived through lockdown and used their little individual stories when they were inline with what the overall trend in the data showed.
What can others learn from this project?
We think what makes this project special is that we tried to make data emotional. Instead of just reporting how the hours of spent with kids increased and working time and free time decreased, we tried to show what this actually means. What the effect of this disruption is for the emotional well-being.
