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



TIME-USE OF WOMEN AND MEN IN IRELAND

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amongst men those aged under 35 years have considerably more free time
than any other age group.

Employment status has a very strong effect on committed time on
weekdays. All non-employed and unemployed groups have significantly less
committed time than the reference group of employees. The self-employed
have higher committed time levels than employees. When other factors are
controlled employment status no longer influences the level of committed/
uncommitted time at weekends. Only the unemployed are distinctive. This is
a small group in the sample but is consistent with research, which says that
levels of activity decline more generally among the unemployed because of
both psychological distress and low income (Jahoda, 1992).

The presence of children increases total committed time on both weekdays
and weekends. This effect is found for both men and women. The higher
committed time levels among women with pre-school children on weekdays is
on the margins of statistical significance (p = .06) but the remaining gender/
child interactions are insignificant. These gender differences are more
pronounced at weekends,18 which suggests that mothers have a higher
workload and less free time than fathers at weekends. There is no additional
effect of being a lone parent on weekdays or weekends. Caring for adults adds
significantly to respondents’ total workload on both weekdays and weekends.
This effect is only significant for women who make up the majority of this
group. Women’s greater involvement in caring for both adults and children,
therefore, leads to gender differences in free or uncommitted time. When
employment status and age are controlled the positive impact of education and
income on committed weekday time disappears. Nor is there relationship
between household income and committed time at the weekends. The lowest
educated group have lower levels of committed time at the weekends but the
patterns by sex are rather erratic. Therefore, the objective time-use data does
not support the idea that busyness is associated with high status and income
when we control for other factors. However, it remains to be seen whether
these groups perceive themselves to be busier when we look at subjective
indicators below.

Compared to those with a non-employed partner, individuals with an em-
ployed partner have rather similar levels of committed time. However, women
with no partner have less committed time than women with a partner on
weekdays. Men with no partner have more committed time on weekend days.

These findings suggest firstly, that it is having a partner per se which
affects committed time, rather than their employment status. Second, given
what we know about the division of labour in the home, this may relate to
unpaid work: women with a partner do more unpaid work, men with a partner

18 The interactions between children <5 years and children of unknown age are significant.



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