Work Rich, Time Poor? Time-Use of Women and Men in Ireland



TIME-USE OF WOMEN AND MEN IN IRELAND

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gender division of labour in Ireland relative to other countries. This
traditional gender division of labour, in particular women’s greater
involvement in unpaid work is associated with interrupted labour force
attachment, lower lifetime earnings, increased exposure to poverty, increased
dependence on a male ‘provider’ (Bittman, 2004b).

3.2 Who in Ireland is Overworked? Examining Overall Committed Time

On week days the highest levels of committed time are observed among the
25 to 44 year age group, the employed, particularly the self-employed, those
with young children, those with third level education and those in the highest
income quartile, which suggests that these are the groups at greatest risk of
‘time poverty’.

While there are strong gender differences in the amount of time spent on
paid and unpaid work, there is no difference in overall committed time on
weekdays, consistent with the findings reported in Gershuny (2000). The age
patterns are strongly linked to employment status with those above
retirement age having a much lower level of committed time and much higher
levels of leisure time.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the factor that has the strongest influence on
committed/uncommitted time on weekdays is employment status.
15 The
presence and age of children is the second most influential factor on weekdays,
and on weekends children are the biggest influence on the amount of
committed time. Those with children under 5 years of age report the highest
levels of committed time of any group reported here, this holds true for both
weekends and weekdays.

The amount of committed time increases with income level and education.
Those in the top quartile have just over 10 hours of committed time on week-
days compared to an average of 7
12 hours for those living in households in the
bottom income quartile. It is not possible to tell from these bivariate associa-
tions whether these are simply reflecting underlying age/employment status
differences. These issues are examined in the multivariate models below.

In order to address the hypothesis that changes in household employment
patterns have been instrumental in increasing perceptions of time-pressure
(i.e. that the increasing incidence of dual earner couples leads to high levels of
paid and unpaid work within households) we examine time-use patterns by
household employment.

There is some support for this view. Both men and women in dual-earner
couples have high levels of committed time. On weekdays women in dual-

15 ‘Strongest’ and ‘influential’ here do not refer to statistical testing: the relative strength of these
effects will be formally tested in the model (see Table 9).



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