Time Pressed and Time Poor: Unpaid Household Work in Guatemala

Abstract

This study examines unpaid work in the household in Guatemala using data from a national 2000 household survey (ENCOVI 2000), which included a time-use module. The contribution highlights the importance of unpaid work in Guatemalan households in economic terms and concludes that in 2000, its value was equivalent to approximately 30 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for that year. The value of unpaid work is estimated using an opportunity cost approach applying market wages as well as different measures of replacement costs. The study then explores the nature of time poverty in Guatemala and examines the determinants of being both time and income poor, concluding that women are more likely to experience this condition. The study also finds that investment in small infrastructure and ownership of an electric or gas stove has the potential to reduce time and income poverty in Guatemala, primarily by alleviating women's time burdens and making their unpaid household work more efficient.Poverty, time use, time poverty, unpaid household work,

Gender Differences in Time-Poverty in Rural Mozambique

“…On the other hand, the time spent by women on all categories of work is almost twice as much of men's work time. These results conform with the inequality in GDOL observed in other developing countries (Akram-Lodhi, 1996;Antonopoulos and Memis, 2010;Bardasi and Wodon, 2010;Gammage, 2010;Ilahi, 1999). The inequality in division of work, as shown in figure 1, is voiced by a woman in a focus group discussion at Posto de Nanhuporio: "... We women work all day.. no rest.. nothing else.. only work.…”

“…Because of the simultaneity of tasks performed by women in the time-use survey, I took into account both primary and secondary activities undertaken in a given time segment. The time poverty estimates in this study tend to be higher than those in other countries' time-use studies (like Bardasi and Wodon (2006); Gammage (2010)) mainly because of accounting for primary care work and simultaneous activities. A measure of work intensity is constructed using the time poverty gap and overlapping work hours, which illustrates that women work more intensively than men.…”

“…Bardasi and Wodon (2010) show that in rural areas of Guinea, adult women devote an average of 25.6 hours/week to domestic and community work while men spend only 7.2 hours/week on an average. Gammage (2010) study show that compared to 0.93 hours/day devoted to unpaid work by rural men, rural women in Guatemala spend 3.3 hours/day. Compared to these studies, the estimates of women's time input in household production in rural Mozambique tend to be higher, potentially, due to accounting of care work for children, old and sick individuals.…”

“…Men are 49% less likely to be time poor. Other time use studies (Bardasi and Wodon, 2010;Gammage, 2010;Ilahi, 1999Ilahi, , 2000Newman, 2001) also find gender to be an important factor in explaining unequal burden of work on women. Owing to different methodologies, sample size and regions, the magnitude of the impact vary, however, the essence is the same.…”

“…For a literate person, the probability of time poverty decreases significantly by 20%. As observed in Guinea (Bardasi and Wodon, 2010) and Guatemala (Gammage, 2010), education was expected to play a favorable role in reducing women's time poverty by increasing their awareness and position in the household. On the contrary, literacy is insignificant in determining women's time poverty.…”