• Business Insider is starting a newsletter to explore the link between gender and success. You can sign up here to receive Gender at Work in your inbox.
• It's a topic that's on many people's minds lately. For example, in the current crisis, some women have taken on a disproportionate number of household responsibilities, in addition to holding down full-time paying jobs.
• Gender at Work will take a broad look at how your gender identity informs your career experiences.

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The coronavirus pandemic and the era of social distancing aren't affecting everyone the same way.

In many households women are shouldering a disproportionate amount of work — and perhaps falling behind in their careers.

As Business Insider's Marguerite Ward reported, these women are looking after kids while childcare centers are closed, keeping the home in order, and still holding down full-time paying jobs.

There isn't one clear reason for the gender imbalance here. One explanation (though hardly a justification), which The Atlantic's Helen Lewis wrote about, is that women tend to earn less than men on average. So their paying jobs may seem like less of a priority.

Crisis situations like the one we're in now can also expose our underlying assumptions about our relationships, namely the belief that women should handle family responsibilities and men should provide financial support. Even couples who don't typically live this way and wouldn't say explicitly that they hold these beliefs, may revert to traditional gender roles in times of extreme stress and uncertainty. Maybe that's what they saw growing up, or just what seems easiest right now.

And finally, our gender biases may be reinforced by employers who look askance on men who take time off from work to care for their family.

As individuals and families reexamine their own gender identities and the implications for their professional ambitions, Business Insider is creating a resource to help guide that introspection.

Introducing Gender at Work.

In this twice-monthly newsletter, we'll take a broad look at how your gender identity informs your career. We'll go beyond gender dynamics for those who are cisgender, addressing the experiences of nonbinary and transgender people as well.

You can expect stories of high-achieving executives from underrepresented communities, new research on what it takes to narrow the gender pay gap, and advice on getting your startup funded when you don't look like every other founder.

Sign up here to get the newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Some coverage will be available exclusively to BI Prime subscribers. If you're looking for a discount on a subscription to BI Prime, click here.

In the meantime, write to Business Insider correspondent Shana Lebowitz at SLebowitz@BusinessInsider.com with ideas for themes to explore, leaders to profile, and questions to answer. We're excited to tackle them.