Unpaid Work Time Research Articles

The Unequal Burden of Poverty on Time Use

This study uses the first time-use survey carried out in South Africa (2000) to examine women’s and men’s time use, with a focus on the impacts of income poverty. We empirically explore the determinants of time spent on different paid and unpaid work activities, including a variety of household and individual characteristics, using bivariate and multivariate Tobit estimations. Our results show asymmetric impacts of income poverty on women’s and men’s time use. Time-use patterns of South African women and men reveal the unequal burden of income poverty among household members. While being poor increases the amount of time women spend on unpaid work, we do not see any significant impact on men’s unpaid work time. For example, women in poor households spend more time than men collecting water and fuel, as well as maintaining their homes.

How Long Is the Second (Plus First) Shift? Gender Differences in Paid, Unpaid, and Total Work Time in Australia and the United States

We use recent time diary data for the U.S. and Australia to examine the gender gap in total work time (unpaid work plus paid work). We focus on whether the gender gap in total work time varies by couples’ employment and parental status. We use two alternative measures of unpaid work, which differ in whether unpaid work includes work reported as a secondary activity. Contrasting sharply with the image painted by Hochschild (1989), when we combine all types of families, we find little gender gap in total work hours (paid plus unpaid), whether or not secondary activities are included. However, the gender gap varies dramatically by family type. When couples have preschool-age children and both men and women are employed full-time, women’s total work is 4 to 5 hours more per week than men’s in the U.S. and 3 to 7 hours more in Australia (with the larger gap obtained when time in secondary activities is included). Women’s excess total work is even higher in unconventional families where men are not employed full-time. On the other hand, where women are not employed and men are, men work substantially more total (paid plus unpaid) hours than women.

Publish and Flourish, or Perish: RAE, ERA, RQF, and Other Acronyms for Infinite Human Resourcefulness

Publish and Flourish, or Perish: RAE, ERA, RQF, and Other Acronyms for Infinite Human Resourcefulness

Work time and learning activities of the continuously employed

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the paid and unpaid work time and learning activities of a small longitudinal sample (n=286) of continuously employed Canadians over the 1998‐2004 period.Design/methodology/approachA sub‐sample of those who responded to two national surveys carried out in 1998 and 2004 and who were continuously employed throughout this period was selected. In addition to a quantitative analysis of their responses to both surveys, a qualitative analysis of open‐ended interviews in 2000 with many of the same respondents offers further insight into orientations to engagement in formal (course‐based) and informal learning.FindingsThose who are not taking adult education courses are still very likely to participate continually in job‐related informal learning. There is some indication that continuing lack of participation in courses may be associated with declining participation in job‐related informal learning. The in‐depth interviews suggest that most continuously employed respondents see course‐based education and informal learning as complementary.Originality/valueThe lack of prior longitudinal population studies means that understanding of continuity and change in work and learning relations has been based on inferences from cross‐sectional surveys. There are few recent longitudinal surveys of work and learning and none that incorporate both unpaid work and informal learning as well as paid work and adult education course participation. This study provides some elementary benchmarks for further diachronic research on work time and learning relations.

Care in Context: Men's Unpaid Work in 20 Countries, 1965–2003

By situating men within the country and time period in which they live, social scientists are better able to understand men's housework and child care behaviors. The author proposes that national context, conceptualized here as women's employment practices and policies, influences men's unpaid work behaviors by shaping the benefits of specialization, the terms of bargaining, and the ease of adhering to gender ideologies and norms. Using 44 time-use surveys from 20 countries (spanning 1965 to 2003) combined with original national-level data, the author utilizes multilevel models to test hypotheses regarding the relationship between national context and men's unpaid work behaviors. She finds that men's unpaid work time increases with national levels of women's employment. Furthermore, the effect of children on men's unpaid work time depends on women's national employment hours, the length of available parental leave, and men's eligibility to take parental leave, which indicates that particular public policies affect men in specific household situations. The analyses document the importance of national context for the unpaid work behaviors of all men, especially fathers, and shift the research focus from the attributes of individual men to the structures that hinder and facilitate men's unpaid work.

Gender, Time and Inequality: Trends in Women's and Men's Paid Work, Unpaid Work and Free Time

This analysis uses nationally representative time diary data from 1965, 1975 and 1998 to examine trends and gender differences in time use. Women continue to do more household labor than men; however, men have substantially increased time in core household activities such as cooking, cleaning and daily child care. Nonetheless, a 30-minute-per-day free-time gap has emerged. Women and men appear to be selectively investing unpaid work time in the tasks that construct family life while spending less time in routine tasks, suggesting that the symbolic meaning of unpaid work may be shifting. At the same time, access to free time has emerged as an arena of time inequality.

Taking Its Toll: The Influence of Paid and Unpaid Work on Women's Well-Being

This paper examines gender differences in the impact of paid and unpaid productive activities on well-being. Using recent Canadian data, we examine the time spent by prime-age women and men (25 – 54) on paid work, childcare, eldercare, household work, volunteering, and education, and then assess its impact on stress and work-life balance. Using multivariate analyses, we show that women's greater hours of unpaid work contribute to women experiencing more stress than men, and of that work, hours spent on eldercare and housework are more stressful than those spent on childcare. We also examine the influence of job characteristics and spouses' paid and unpaid work time on stress. Neither spouse's unpaid work nor most job characteristics alleviate stress, once work hours are controlled. However, the evidence suggests that women, more so than men, use strategies such as self-employment to improve work-life balance.

The Friction-Cost Method

The friction-cost method has been put forward as an alternative to the human-capital method as it allows more realistic estimates of productivity costs to be calculated for use in economic evaluations. The possibility of replacement of (long-term) absentees is at the heart of the friction-cost method. It recognises that society will restore initial production levels after some period of adaptation, the length of which may depend on the availability of labour and, hence, on unemployment. The friction-cost method has received two main criticisms in the literature: (i) it has no theoretical underpinning; and (ii) it treats leisure time as having no value. We demonstrate in a simple 'theoretical' time-allocation model how time use shifts in the friction-cost method and that leisure is not treated as having no value. Rather, it is considered to be valued in terms of QALYs--as is normally the case in economic evaluation. The time-allocation model also demonstrates that when using the friction-cost or human-capital method the changes in the amount of unpaid work and leisure time need to be valued separately. Unpaid production losses from the previously unemployed may be larger than the gain in unpaid production gain of the absentee, resulting in a societal loss of unpaid work or the sacrifice of leisure in order to make up for lost unpaid work. These changes should be incorporated into economic analyses.

Appliances and their impact: the ownership of domestic technology and time spent on household work.

Ever since the appearance of Vanek's pioneering article in 1974, there has been a controversy about whether 'labour saving' domestic appliances actually save labour time. Vanek argued that time spent in housework had barely changed since 1926, despite the diffusion of practically every known domestic appliance over this period. Gershuny and Robinson challenge Vanek's 'constancy of housework' thesis, arguing that, between 1965 and 1985, domestic technology has significantly reduced the weekly hours of women's routine housework. Although there is much talking past each other, none of the protagonists in this dispute have any direct data about which households own or do not own domestic appliances. Instead, they all rely on the passage of the years as a proxy for ownership of domestic appliances, since a higher proportion of contemporary households now own domestic appliances. The Australian 1997 Time Use Survey (Australian Bureau of Statistics 1998b) is rare among official surveys, as it simultaneously provides detailed information on time spent in housework and an inventory of household appliances. The analysis of this data show that domestic technology rarely reduces women's unpaid working time and even, paradoxically, produces some increases in domestic labour. The domestic division of labour by gender remains remarkably resistant to technological innovation.

Life quality index revisited

The derivation of the life quality index (LQI) is revisited for a revision. This revision takes into account the unpaid but necessary work time needed to stay alive in clean and healthy conditions to be fit for effective wealth producing work and to enjoyable free time. Dimension analysis consistency problems with the standard power function expression of the LQI are pointed out. It is emphasized that the combination coefficient in the convex differential combination between the relative differential of the gross domestic product per capita and the relative differential of the expected life at birth should not vary between countries. Finally the distributional assumptions are relaxed as compared to the assumptions made in an earlier work by the author. These assumptions concern the calculation of the life expectancy change due to the removal of an accident source. Moreover a simple public acceptance criterion is compared to the LQI criterion.

Gender, Time Use, and Change: The Impact of the Cut Flower Industry in Ecuador

This article uses survey data from Ecuador to examine the effects of women's employment on the allocation of paid and unpaid labor within the household. The reader compares a region with high demand for female labor with a similar region in which demand for female labor is low. The comparison suggests that market labor opportunities for women have no effect on women's total time in labor but increase men's time in unpaid labor. The increase in men's time in unpaid work reflects women's increased bargaining power in the home.

Factors Contributing to Time Spent on Paid and Unpaid Work: A Regression Analysis of Time Use Survey Data

The study of time spent on different activities rather than the study of people can offer new insights as well as new challenges. This paper presents the results from an exploratory analysis of data from the first New Zealand Time Use Survey. Interesting questions arise about the distribution of paid and unpaid work across different groups in society. Of particular interest is how men and women balance the competing demands of paid and unpaid work. This paper is a first attempt at understanding some of the complex relationships between social, demographic and employment characteristics and paid and unpaid work time.

The migraine ACE model: evaluating the impact on time lost and medical resource Use.

To describe the Migraine Adaptive Cost-Effectiveness Model in the context of an analysis of a simulated population of Canadian patients with migraine. The high prevalence of migraine and its substantial impact on patients' ability to function normally present a significant economic burden to society. In light of the recent availability of improved pharmaceutical treatments, a model was developed to assess their economic impact. The Migraine Adaptive Cost-Effectiveness Model incorporates the costs of time lost from both work and nonwork activities, as well as medical resource and medication use. Using Monte Carlo techniques, the model simulates the experience of a population of patients with migraine over the course of 1 year. As an example, analyses of a Canadian population were carried out using data from a multinational trial, surveys, national statistics, and the available literature. Using customary therapy, mean productivity losses (amounting to 84 hours of paid work time, 48 hours of unpaid work time, and 113 hours of leisure time lost) were estimated to cost $1949 (in 1997 Canadian dollars) per patient, with medical expenditures adding an average of $280 to the cost of illness. With customary treatment patterns, the costs of migraine associated with reduced functional capacity are substantial. The migraine model represents a flexible tool for the economic evaluation of different migraine treatments in various populations.

Time Allocation in Times of Structural Transformation

This study focuses on time allocation in 1995 by married or cohabiting, employed or homemaking Dutch women and men aged between 25 and 44. It asks (1) What role does gender play in time-allocation decisions? (2) What effects do situational factors have on time allocation, and do these effects differ between the sexes? Time-allocation models were developed for women and men separately, such that paid work affected unpaid work and free time, and free time, in turn, was affected by paid and unpaid work. It was found that women's unpaid work, rather than their free time, acts as a time buffer when more time is allocated to paid work, whereas men's free time rather than unpaid work time assumes this function. Although time allocation is still gendered, time-use patterns of both women and men at the end of the 20th century are differentiated by situational factors. In the present-day institutional Dutch context, the combination of having children and performing market work implies a relative loss of free time for women and men alike which is believed to be connected with a loss of control over time.

National Working-Time Regimes and Equal Opportunities

Progress towards equal opportunities is critically dependent upon the development of a more equal and more balanced allocation of time in both paid and unpaid work. Gender divisions relating to working time arise primarily from differences in gender divisions within the household but the extent and form that these gender divisions take in the labor market are moderated or mediated by national working-time regimes. These regimes are found to be extremely diverse across Europe with very different implications for gender equality. Current interests in greater flexibility in working time are leading to pressures to changes in working-time regimes and to an increase in the extent of unsocial hours working. The strategies adopted to meet these pressures may vary by country and sector but the restructuring of working time is also likely to be influenced by gender factors and divisions. The result may be increasing differentiation by both gender and class. Progress towards equality requires a renewal of interest in reducing standard working hours and a questioning of the current assumption that increasing unsocial hours working is essential for competitiveness.

The Gender of Paid and Unpaid Work Time

European Union legislation reflects the consensus reached by the governments of member states. Yet laws have to be implemented in widely differing national contexts and may not therefore achieve the same objectives or have the same effects. Proposals for regulating working conditions, promoting equality of opportunity and reconciling paid and unpaid work are often driven by the need to avoid competitive disadvantage, with little regard for their possible impact on the everyday lives of individuals. This paper examines the temporal dimension of European legislation from a gendered perspective, and its implications for the patterning of women's employment and family life.

More Work—Less Leisure? Changing Allocations of Time in Canada, 1981 to 1992

This article assesses changes in the distribution of time to major groups of daily activities in Canada between 1981 and 1992, and identifies social groups which have been exposed during this period to the greatest pressures of paid and unpaid work. The article examines, in particular: (a) trends in the allocation of time to paid work, domestic work, combined loads of paid and unpaid work, personal needs, and free time; (b) the changing composition of domestic and free time activities; and (c) Canadians' subjective perceptions of being pressed for time compared to the not so distant past (five years ago). Trends in the use of time and perceived time pressure are controlled for gender and life cycle situation. An attempt is made to relate the changes in the use of time to larger social and economic trends, and to outline policy implications of the findings.

Paid work, unpaid work and social support: A study of the health of male and female nurses

Paid work, unpaid work in the home and social support are important elements of the social production of health and illness, though their combined effects on both women and men have only recently become a focus of research. This paper examines their association with the health problems of nurses, presenting data from a survey of a proportional random sample of 2285 male and female nurses registered in the Province of Ontario. The data are first analysed for the full sample and then multiple regression analyses are run separately for male and female Registered Nurses.The demands of paid work (overload, exposure to hazards), unpaid work (time pressures, caring for a dependent adult) and overall stress in life are associated with greater health problems. There is also evidence of significant links between social support and health. A poor relationship with a supervisor is associated with health problems. On the other hand, enjoying a confiding relationship with a friend and having up to 4 children reduces the likelihood of experiencing health problems. The features of nursing associated with fewer health problems are challenge, satisfaction with work and working under 20 hours a week.Several common themes emerge in the analyses of women and men: overload, hazard exposure, satisfaction with work, having 3–4 children and level of overall stress in life. Yet the models are also very different and point to the need for further analyses of the social production of health problems in relation to gender. They also suggest that female nurses, in particular, may suffer the effects of restructuring in the health care sector. Workload issues are especially important for women. Younger women, those reporting time pressures and caring for a dependent adult are more likely to report health problems. Having a confiding relationship with a friend is associated with fewer health problems for women. Among men, those who dislike housework are more likely to experience health problems. Satisfaction with work and overall stress in life were associated with health problems for both men and women, though there may be gender differences in what generates satisfaction and stress.

Household, Paid, and Unpaid Work Time of Farm Women

The proposal that the time allotments to household paid and unpaid work are unique for farm women compared to rural nonfarm and urban women is examined using the NE-113 data base (An interstate Comparison of Urban/Rural Families Time Use) a stratified random sample of 2100 2-parent 2-child families within the rural and urban areas of 11 states. There was no significant difference among farm rural nonfarm and urban women in the allocation of time to categories of household work. Farm women spent more time in unpaid work and orgaizational participation while rural nonfarm women devoted the most hours to paid employment. Stepwise multiple regression identified hours in paid employment as the factors which contributed most to a decrease in all womens household work time. Hours of unpaid work by farm women were not affected by womens hours of paid work or household work. (authors)