gender & work time
[original NBER WP at http://www.nber.org/papers/w13000]
http://www.slate.com/id/2164268/
the dismal science Couch Entitlement
Surprise=97men do just as much work as women do. By Joel Waldfogel
Posted Monday, April 16, 2007, at 12:54 PM ET
Everyone from economists and sociologists to Oprah knows that women =
work more than men. Their longer combined hours, at the home and at =
the office, stop men from taking afternoon naps on the couch and =
cause fights that end with men spending nights on the couch. And yet =
according to new study, those longer hours are a myth, because it’s =
just not true that women carry a heavier load.
Three economists, Michael Burda of Humboldt University in Berlin, =
Daniel Hamermesh of the University of Texas, and Philippe Weil of the =
Free University of Brussels have analyzed data from surveys in 25 =
countries that ask people how they spend their time. Some of the =
countries are rich, like the United States and Germany, some are =
poor, like Benin and Madagascar, and some are in the middle, like =
Hungary, Mexico, and Slovenia. The people surveyed were asked to fill =
in diaries indicating how they spend each segment of their day.
The 24 hours we all have each day can be divided into four broad =
activities: “market work” that is, work for pay, typically outside =
the house; “homework,” including housework and child care; “tertiary =
time,” including sleep, eating, and other biological necessities that =
people can do only for themselves; and the time left over, which is =
leisure. Leisure is not essential to survival, but we like it.
Throughout the world, men spend more time on market work, while women =
spend more time on homework. In the United States and other rich =
countries, men average 5.2 hours of market work a day and 2.7 hours =
of homework each day, while women average 3.4 hours of market work =
and 4.5 hours of homework per day. Adding these up, men work an =
average of 7.9 hours per day, while women work an average of=97drum =
roll, please=977.9 hours per day. This is the first major finding of =
the new study. Whatever you may have heard on The View, when these =
economists accounted for market work and homework, men and women =
spent about the same amount of time each day working. The averages =
sound low because they include weekends and are based on a sample of =
adults that included stay-at-home parents as well as working ones, =
and other adults.
In Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands, men actually work more than =
women, although the differences are small. In Belgium, Denmark, =
Finland, and the United Kingdom, women work slightly more, though =
less than 5 percent. Among rich countries, the largest differences =
emerge in Italy, where women work eight hours while men work only =
6.5, and in France, where women work 7.2 hours and men 6.6.
A couple of caveats to all this newfound equality. First, many =
knowledgeable people believe that women work more. In a survey by the =
authors of this study, 54 percent of economists and 62 percent of =
economics students thought that women work more than men, as did more =
than 70 percent of sociologists. And while the gender equal-work =
phenomenon has been noted before, “it has been swamped by claims in =
widely circulated sociological studies =85 that women’s total work =
significantly exceeds men’s,” as the authors put it. Although men in =
many rich countries do not work less than women, they do enjoy about =
20 to 30 minutes more leisure per day (over an hour more in Italy) =
because they spend less time on sleep and other biological =
necessities. Men spend almost all of this additional leisure time =
watching television.
While men and women spend about the same time working in rich =
countries, women do work more than men in poor countries. And the gap =
widens as countries get poorer. While in the United States, which has =
a per capita GNP of roughly $33,000, there is no difference between =
the amount of male and female work, in Benin, Madagascar, and South =
Africa, which have a per capita income of less than $10,000, women =
work one to two hours more per day than men.
So, what explains the difference in the time that men and women spend =
working in richer vs. poorer countries? It’s not a matter of women =
leveraging their greater earnings in places where they can earn more =
than men. Alas, there are no such places, and women do not reap =
greater market rewards in the countries where women work the most =
relative to men.
The authors of the new study instead think that a social norm =
explains men and women in rich countries pitch in to the same degree. =
For both men and women, number of hours of combined market work and =
homework varies among different regions in the United States. But the =
male-female work gap remains small everywhere in the country, and in =
this the authors see evidence of a general equality norm. For =
example, while people in the South work an average of 7.7 hours per =
day in and out of the home, and people in the East work eight hours =
(a daily difference of 20 minutes), the difference between the amount =
of time that men and women work, again in and out of the home, is =
only two minutes in the East and 10 minutes in the South. Similar =
patterns hold when you divide the data by level of education. The =
most educated quarter of the American population works a combined 8.7 =
hours, while the lowest educated quarter works 6.3 hours=97a difference =
of more than two hours per day. But when you compare men and women in =
each education bracket, the difference in their total work is no more =
than 20 minutes.
Many women with demanding careers tell me that it is women working =
full-time in the market, not women overall, who work more than =
comparable men. This study cannot settle that question because it =
does not report work time separately for people with and without =
market jobs. But if women with careers work more than men, while =
women overall work the same amount as men, then women without market =
jobs must work less than men. Men can use that argument to hit the =
couch in the afternoon. Or to end up there at night.
Joel Waldfogel is the Ehrenkranz family professor of business and =
public policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.