Women 'were nearly twice as likely to break coronavirus lockdown rules' due to one reason

Women were more likely than men to break Covid-19 lockdown rules in England, a study has found.

Mothers in particular were found to ignore the ban on indoor mixing as they felt "compelled" to do so - in order to get help with childcare, according to research published by the University of York.

A number of measures prohibiting people from mixing with other households were introduced during the early stages of the pandemic, in a bid to reduce high transmission rates.

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But many women were found to be forming their own covid bubbles 'out of necessity' before they were legally allowed, and meeting with friends and family to ease the burden of childcare.

Researchers said they were "shocked" at the findings as previous studies showed that men are much more likely to break the law than women. They said the findings 'highlighted how rules during the pandemic clashed with existing gender inequalities.'

Early restrictions imposed by the government in 2020 failed to reflect the dependency of households and the importance of informal childcare, especially by grandparents, they said.

They also said existing caring responsibilities were exacerbated by the pandemic which may have led to breaking house mixing rules.

Lead author Professor Joe Tomlinson, from the Law School at the University of York, said: "The results of our study suggest there wasn’t enough consideration given to caring obligations and how the new laws would have a disproportionate impact on women and other groups facing inequalities.

"Our findings surprised us because previous studies into compliance have shown that men are much more likely to break the law than women. However, our