Time allocation of rural women in the Philippines : the case of Laguna
Date
1992
Authors
Paunlagui, Merlyne M
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Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the productive roles of women by analysing
the number of hours devoted to their activities. The major objectives were to (1)
examine women's time allocation by demographic, social and economic
characteristics of women and the households to which they belonged; (2) determine
the changes that occurred in women's time allocation between 1975 and 1985; (3)
examine the sexual division of domestic work; and (4) investigate the undercounting
of women's economic activities. The sources of data used in this study were the
1975, 1982 and 1985 Laguna Household Surveys.
This study divides women's activities into three categories: domestic work,
market work and personal care. Regardless of employment status, domestic work
was the dominant activity of Laguna mothers throughout this period. Activities
centering on the kitchen formed the most time-consuming component of domestic
work, followed by child rearing and other housework. Work for wages and 'other
market activities' such as trading and retailing were the main components of
employed mothers' market activities, whereas activities related to crop production
contributed the least.
The burden of employed women's productive and reproductive roles affected
their personal pursuits. As the number of hours devoted to market activities
increased, a lower number of hours was spent on leisure, sleeping and personal
activities because the time devoted to domestic activities remained stable. However,
the time spent on total work (domestic and market work combined) by employed
women was markedly less than the time spent on personal activities. This may
reflect the fact that even if women had wanted to participate more in income-earning
activities, they would be able to do so because jobs were not available.
The unavailability of suitable jobs could also explain the lack of significant
increase in the time devoted to market work of women between 1975 and 1985. As expected, the time spent on domestic work decreased between 1975 and 1985;
however, the time saved was shifted mainly to personal activities. In effect, the
number of hours devoted to market activities did not increase significantly despite
the infrastructural development and technological innovations in agriculture during
the period of study. Others probably benefited from such developmental efforts, but
not the respondents of the study, probably because the women were considerably
older (the mean age of women was 40 in 1985) and they lacked the necessary skills
required by most manufacturing companies.
The domestic work of non-employed and employed women was significantly
affected by the age of the youngest child but not by the number of children. The
time devoted to domestic activities was reduced as the youngest child grew older.
Finally, through the use of time-allocation data the subsistence work of
women which has normally been regarded as non-labour force work can be
measured. The availability of this data will help to illustrate the importance of
subsistence and small-scale activities in meeting the economic needs of the
households in the developing countries and will thereby affect government
perspectives and policies.
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