Time poverty:  Who gets to work, learn and thrive?

The division of chores has remained stagnant at gendered expectations leading to less opportunities for women. Photo: TBS

The approach to calibrating poverty and its causes can be often rather simplistic, ignoring the multiple layers of disparities affecting the causal mechanisms. 

Too hurriedly, it is said that the solution to the lack of skills is to learn new ones, or the solution to the lack of proper investments, the decision to invest. 

However, the most crucial resource at the core of it all is often ignored: time.

The glorification of "hustle culture" has resulted in blurring the boundaries between work hours and personal time, and has created an environment where individuals are putting in more effort into work and are constantly witnessing the pressure to enhance their existing skills. 

The phenomenon of being online, available for both work and entertainment, has also exacerbated the pressure. 

The sprawl of cities and the skyrocketing costs of living in city centers have led many individuals to commute for longer periods to work, often those who already exist in the lower-income group. Increasingly across the globe, changing demographics have resulted in smaller families. 

With families now facing chores that would otherwise be divided among larger households, and individuals often juggling multiple employments, the impact on the availability of time has been disastrous. 

These multifarious factors have created a situation of time poverty for many.  This naturally creates a cycle of poverty, as ones who suffer from the lack of time, either by juggling multiple jobs or by not having childcare, are the very ones who are unable to have time to learn new skills to get out of poverty. 

Research on Aboriginal women in Manitoba discovered that caregiving obligations were a substantial impediment to academic achievement. Poor time management and stress, as shown in studies, also result in poorer financial decisions, hindering investment and asset management. 

On the other hand, issues like routine health checkups, proper dietary planning, and fitness regimes also become increasingly unavailable due to time poverty. 

In 2017, 24% of American women reported postponing or failing to receive health care because they couldn't find time, while 14% cited difficulty finding child care. Among pregnant South African women, regular duties such as collecting water and fieldwork have been proven to lower usage of prenatal care.

The time poverty itself is not linear. The situation is much worse in the developing world, which has neither the safety net of the state nor the free market solutions to the needs of individuals. 

Lack of access to state-mandated resources like childcare, healthcare often results in individuals burdening themselves with a very high level of household work. Developing countries, by their very structure and challenges, lack the provision to alleviate the pressure on their citizens. 

Even in these countries, the situation is not linear across the spectrum. People who can afford child and elderly care often can outsource these responsibilities, while the poor cannot. 

Amenities like water or fuel are also not readily available in many households across the developing world. Going out to collect water or firewood, for instance, is a chore not present in higher-income households. 

Thus, the loop of poverty is intricately linked to the loop of time poverty.

In cases of unpaid household work, women face the worst brunt. Almost all countries have witnessed the success of women entering the workforce, but the division of chores has remained stagnant at gendered expectations. Hence, they have to face the undue pressure of both working outside and inside the house.  

Bangladesh Time Use Survey 2021 shows that urban men and women report higher levels of life satisfaction compared to their rural counterparts. In all cases, gendered norms strictly dictate the use of time. Women spend more time on unpaid domestic and care tasks than men, regardless of age, residence, education level, or marital status. Men spend more time on income-generating activities.  

The perception around chores also dictates the time poverty. This can either be very benign, as women taking on the duty of arranging playdates or picnics, where women themselves take the lead. In other cases, the idea of sharing chores is absent due to cultural expectations or the threat of violence.  

Oftentimes, the norms dictate the time allocation of young school-going girls, whose studies and productivity are severely hampered due to such prioritisation. 

Globally, girls between the ages of 10 and 14 spend 50% more time assisting around the house than boys of the same age. On the other hand, women in industrialized and developing nations spend an average of 2 and 3.4 times more hours per day on unpaid work than men. 

Hence, upon the birth of a child or the deterioration of someone's health in the household, women have to leave their jobs, making them vulnerable financially. 

Globally, an estimated 606 million working-age women consider themselves unavailable for employment or not seeking a career due to unpaid care work, in comparison to only 41 million males.

In the context of Bangladesh, the divisions of life satisfaction are more prominent across the rural and urban spectrum, showing the regional differences in the standard of living. 

Bangladesh Time Use Survey 2021 shows that urban men and women report higher levels of life satisfaction compared to their rural counterparts. In all cases, gendered norms strictly dictate the use of time. 

Women spend more time on unpaid domestic and care tasks than men, regardless of age, residence, education level, or marital status. Men spend more time on income-generating activities.  

Men spend an average of 6.1 hours on income-generating and related activities, whereas women spend only 1.2 hours, five times less than males. On the other hand, women spend 5.8 hours on unpaid domestic and caregiving services, whereas males spend only 0.8 hours, accounting for one-seventh of the time spent by women. 

The unequal distribution of time thus puts more pressure on women, and the gendered expectation works as an impediment to encouraging their income-generating activities. While both urban and rural women are more involved in childcare and dependent adult care, women aged 25-44 spend the greatest time on childcare, the very age at which is essential for an individual's education and career.  

With marriage, the caregiving workload increases for both males and females. However, women bear the most of the burden. The gendered disparity manifested by taking time away from income generation thus creates stunted career growth, creating the wage gap. 

What needs to be acknowledged across the board is the crisis of time poverty, faced by the affluent and the poor. While the context of the rich, as popularly dubbed "affluenza," stems from unhealthy work culture, for the ultra-poor, this is a case of mere survival. 

As women suffer from a wage gap due to pressure from unpaid housework, both the reimagination of domestic duties and policy intervention in workplaces are urgent. 

Lubaba Mahjabin Prima is a research assistant at South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM).

Eshrat Sharmin is a deputy director at SANEM.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.