A recent IZA Discussion Paper by Charles Gottlieb, Cheryl Doss, Douglas Gollin, and Markus Poschke sheds light on how women and men in various countries allocate their time across market work, domestic work, and care work. For a consistent comparison, they built a new harmonized dataset encompassing high-quality time-use data for 50 countries across the income spectrum.
Stark gender imbalances across the globe
The analysis exposes significant gender disparities in how married couples distribute these work categories. On average, women globally dedicate only half the hours to market work compared to men. However, in wealthier nations, they shoulder twice the burden of domestic and care work compared to men. This disparity becomes even starker (three to five times) in low- and middle-income countries.
Income level doesn’t tell the whole story
A particularly striking finding is the wide variation in the gender division of market and domestic work even among countries with similar income levels. Among middle-income countries like China and India, there’s a substantial discrepancy (up to a factor of three) in women’s market work hours.
Understanding the Why: A model for gendered work division
To delve into the root causes of these differences, the authors constructed a model of household time use. This model examines how factors like the gender wage gap, social norms, harassment at work or while commuting, and childcare accessibility influence the division of work between men and women.
Non-wage factors drive the wedge
Their analysis uncovers that non-wage, gender-specific factors – primarily those that discourage women’s participation in market work and men’s involvement in domestic work – account for most of the variation in work division across countries. The influence of these factors is particularly pronounced in certain countries and closely linked to measures of gender norms and gender-biased laws.
Policy implications: Focus on gender norms
Overall, the study provides compelling evidence that factors like gender norms have the most significant impact on how work is divided between genders across countries, with considerably less influence from factors like wage gaps or childcare availability. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers aiming to create targeted interventions to achieve a more balanced work distribution or, more specifically, to promote greater female participation in market work.