Study finds women still do bulk of caring work

WOMEN DO the bulk of caring in the home for children and elderly or ill family members, according to a new report on gender workloads published today.

The study, Gender Inequalities in Time Useby the ESRI and published by the Equality Authority, finds women spend twice as much time as men each day doing unpaid work, including caring and housework.

One of the authors of the report, Dr Frances McGinnity, said the findings indicated how undervalued unpaid work continued to be, that women did more of it and many, as a result, were unable to pursue paid work as freely as men.

"This has huge implications for women's pensions, power within the home, status at work."

She said that given the rapid increase in women's participation in the formal labour market, she and co-author, Dr Helen Russell, had expected a more even take-up of unpaid work in the home.

Women's participation in the paid labour force increased from just under 40 per cent in 1993 to 60 per cent in 2004.

"That was a surprise for us," Dr McGinnity said. "There are policy implications, but there also needs to be a change in attitudes to unpaid care work, it needs to be seen as a significant contributor to society. I think that by not accounting for unpaid work we are missing a lot of the picture. Society couldn't function without it and yet it is taken for granted."

She hoped the study would begin a process where such unpaid work may begin to be more valued. "Even when it is paid for, in the case of nannies and cleaners, it is usually women who do it. It has a very low status and is badly paid, with few rights."

The report analyses time-use diaries from more than 1,000 men and women in almost 600 households, aged 18 to 97 between April and July 2005.

It found men spent an average of four hours and 40 minutes a day on paid work compared to women who spent just over two hours a day on paid work.

Men spent just under two hours on unpaid work, while women spent five hours a day on house and care-work.

When paid and unpaid work and travel are measured, women have a heavier daily load, with an average 39 minutes more of their day committed to work than of men's.

"Gender differences persist within employment," the report says. Employed women spend an average of two hours and 47 minutes on childcare compared to 40 minutes by employed men.

Looking at what proportions of each gender engage in different types of work through the week, it finds 19 per cent of men clean and 29 per cent cook on weekdays, compared with 71 per cent of women who clean and 74 per cent who cook.

"The gender patterns hold true for the weekend," says the report, where women still do the lion's share. Some 22 per cent of men clean and 32 per cent cook at weekends, while 67 per cent of women cook and clean at the weekends.

"This leads to a gender gap in time devoted to leisure at weekends."

Looking at the situation of couples, the report says there is a more equal division of labour in the home where both are in employment. However, women are more likely to be in part-time work than their male partners.

One of the key issues examined in the report is parenting.

"Having children leads to a large increase in committed time and decrease in leisure time for both men and women," Dr McGinnity said. "Parenthood brings a reallocation of time for both men and women."

Women in couples on average do 37 per cent of the paid work, 72 per cent of the unpaid and bear 55 per cent of the total work-load each day. Among the policy recommendations are that paid paternity leave and greater State funding for childcare should be introduced.