New Delhi: Young women in India and other low-income countries spend a large share of their time doing unpaid household work, which contributes to the gender pay gap they face later in life, a study by researchers from the universities of East Anglia (UEA), Birmingham, and Brunel has found.
The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Feminist Economics last week, also suggests that domestic chores undertaken during childhood affect the share of women’s participation in the workforce.
For the study, researchers examined data collected as part of the Young Lives Project — a longitudinal cohort study of childhood poverty following the lives of 12,000 children from India, Ethiopia, Peru, and Vietnam.
In India, data for the project was collected from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Researchers found that by the age of 22, women were less likely to be engaged in paid work, and earned less than men in low- and middle-income countries. This disparity, according to the study, is partly due to the larger share of household responsibilities young women shoulder as children.
“At all ages, boys spend less time in caring and chores than girls but more time in tasks: at age 19 women spent 3.66 hours a day and men 1.34 hours, on average, in caring and chores. Men spent more time (1.83 hours) on tasks than women (0.94 hours), but this does not compensate for the overall disparity in unpaid household work,” the study said.
A policy to address gender inequality in paid work needs to take into account unpaid work undertaken by women during childhood, said Nicholas Vasilakos, an associate professor at the UEA who was among the researchers involved in the study.
“Unequal participation in household work starts at a young age, widening differences over time suggest gendered trajectories,” he said in a statement.
Fiona Carmichael, a professor at the Birmingham Business School who was also part of the study, added: “Longer hours of unpaid household work that reduces girls’ time for study may therefore limit their future lives by constraining employment opportunities.”
“This confirms that the care burden to women of their greater share of household work starts back in childhood.”
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Lower compensation, greater vulnerability
Following the lives of children between the ages of eight and 22, the team analysed their participation in any paid work in any sector, including the type of employment and wages.
The study found that at the age of 22, women in India, Ethiopia, Peru, and Vietnam were already facing a gender gap in employment participation — 85.72 per cent of men versus 70.64 per cent of women.
Moreover, women’s average hourly wage of $1.46 was found to significantly less than that of the men — $1.77 — in these countries.
The study also found that in the case of young women, longer hours of household work during childhood led to a greater adverse affect on their employment opportunities compared to men.
In contrast to men, employment for women in these countries was likely to be driven to a greater extent by lack of choice or by need, and is characterised by fewer opportunities for well-paid, high-quality jobs.
The findings of the study add to previous research that has shown that girls receive lower compensation for, or are more vulnerable to, early-life experiences — and that this leads to widening gender inequalities.
Lower compensation or greater vulnerability as a result of decisions made by families, schools or other institutions, and how these relate to women’s place in the social structure, is an area that requires further research.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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