COVID-19 exacerbates women’s time poverty
23 January 2021
Author: Nikhila Menon, Yokohama
The burdens of unpaid domestic and care work fall disproportionately on women in both developed and developing countries. According to a 2018 UN Women report, women perform 2.6 times more unpaid care and domestic work than men. The resulting ‘time poverty’ is a critical factor that reinforces gender inequality, and the COVID-19 crisis has further exacerbated its impact on women around the world.
On average, women perform 4 hours and 25 minutes of unpaid care work every day, compared to 1 hour and 23 minutes for men. The ‘triple burden’ of paid work, unpaid domestic work and care work exerts enormous physical and emotional stress on women, and deprives them of opportunities to pursue education and skill development. The deprivation of leisure time takes a toll on women’s emotional wellbeing, leaving them more vulnerable to mental health problems. In developing countries, women’s work remains invisible in the informal economy, further complicating attempts to measure time poverty.