Women have long contributed to the economy through their unpaid work in the home. The recent Married Women's Survey, 2000, conducted by Irish Marketing Surveys for Ark Life, attempts to place monetary values on their tasks.

Although the sample size of 373 married women is small, the survey reveals some interesting results and disturbing shortfalls in family financial planning.

The yearly value of time spent by an average married woman working in the home is £18,532.80, using the national minimum wage of £4.40 an hour.

As shown by the accompanying box, a full-time housewife is estimated to spend 80.6 hours a week working in the home. This is worth approximately £356.40 per week.

A married woman working full-time outside the home spends 62 hours on "home work" worth an estimated £272.80 a week.

The survey also shows that women seriously underestimate the value of this work. A full-time housewife believes her services are worth £193 per week. A married woman working full-time outside home estimates that the tasks would cost £206 per week in the current market.

What would happen if the woman of the house was no longer available to do such work due to her incapacitation or death? Most families take out life policies on the highest wage earner, which tends to be the man. However, the loss of a woman from the home would significantly impact on a family financially.

The majority of married women's time at home is spent doing household jobs. A breakdown of hours spent on specific tasks, shown in the pie chart, reveals this work includes: general household tasks (12 per cent); laundry (9 per cent); washing dishes (9 per cent); shopping (4 per cent); and driving children to activities (3 per cent).

If the woman is sick or injured, someone would have to be hired to do these tasks if the rest of the family were unable. But the high demand for service providers such as cleaners means they charge substantially more per hour than the minimum wage.

When the woman's wage or work in the home is unavailable, a serious shortfall develops in the family budget. Depressingly, there appears to be a large shortfall in the level of insurance in place to make up that shortfall.

The number of women with life assurance has decreased since a previous study was conducted for Ark Life in 1997. Today, 51 per cent of women have life assurance cover. Of these: 38 per cent are covered for less than £20,000; 25 per cent between £20,000 and £50,000; 27 per cent between £50,000 and £100,000; and 8 per cent for over £100,000.

Three years ago, 55 per cent of women surveyed had life assurance cover. The majority (42 per cent) were covered for less than £20,000 and 37 per cent for between £20,000 and £50,000. The remainder, 21 per cent, had cover of more than £50,000.

The lower level of insurance would hardly cover one year without the woman of the house, if the survey's annual figure of £18,532.80 was accurate.

After hiring a cleaner, someone must be found to prepare meals (15 per cent of surveyed women's time), supervise homework (3 per cent), and look after children (28 per cent).

The childcare crisis has been well-documented but prices continue to rise. In this area, the survey's figures are extremely conservative, considering the cost of childcare services in today's economy.

Ms Hilary Kenny, of the Irish Pre-school Playgroups' Association (IPPA), says full daycare in Dublin costs between £90 and £130 a week. Similar services in rural areas are 30 to 40 per cent less. Community-based services are on a sliding scale but cost well below £90 a week on average.

For older children, sessional care - or childcare for up to 3.5 hours - costs £35 to £40 a week in Dublin. It can be approximately half that amount in rural and disadvantaged areas.

Ms Patricia Murray of the National Childminding Association of Ireland says the organisation suggests a notional rate of £3 an hour for occassional childminding services. It also recommends a 10 per cent reduction in the rate for a second child from the same family.

According to the survey, only 2 per cent of women's time is spent on gardening or DIY tasks. This is yet another expense on the family ledger as the hedge will still need to be clipped and the leaky tap fixed.

Personal life assurance should be an essential part of financial planning. As your family grows or changes, the policy should be reviewed to realistically cover any potential loss of wages and homework.