Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Manila, Philippines, 11-13 October, 2010 中华人民共和国国家统计局中华人民共和国国家统计局中华人民共和国国家统计局中华人民共和国国家统计局

Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Manila, Philippines, 11-13 October, 2010

中中华华人人民民共共和和国国国国家家统统计计局局

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UNPAID HOUSEWORK: WOMEN

BURDEN MORE

Liu Wei

National Bureau of Statistics, China

ESA/STAT/AC.219/29

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A time use survey was carried out by NBS in May

2008, There were 37142 interviewees aged 15-74

years old from 10 provinces. Among which were

19621 urban residents and 17521 rural residents,

18927 female and 18215 male.

I. TIME-USE SURVEY IN CHINA, 2008

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The Diary

Open diary with intervals of 10 minutes was adopted in

the survey. The items included:

• main activity

• secondary activity

• location (the means of transportation if in transit)

• with whom when the activity starts

Every respondent was asked to fill in two diaries, one for

weekday, and one for weekend day.


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The Classification of Activities

The activity classification for time use in this survey:

9 categories, 61 groups and 113 classes

The 9 categories are:

0- Personal activity 1- Formal employment

2- Household primary work

3- Household manufacture and construction work

4- Household service 5- Household domestic work

6- Caring for families and volunteer activity

7- Study 8- Social life and leisure time


Caring for families is divided into:

61- Care for Children

62- Care for Adults. 4



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Output

Three indicators are used for measuring main activities: Average timeParticipation rateAverage time of participants

All indicators are provided by gender

Other characteristics are: age, marriage, occupation,

education, income and urban/rural


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Output

• Main activity: the records of main activity are

complete. The result shows that the average time of

no activity (no code or no record of activity) are

less than 1 minute per diary.

• Secondary activity: the records of secondary

activity are incomplete. Many records were filled

with only beginning time, but no ending time.

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II. TIME USE: WHO TAKE ON THE RESPONSIBILITY OF CARE

Responsibility by Gender

In China, women take on most housework.

Average time of housework:

Women: 4 hours (234 minutes)

Men: 1.5 hours (91 minutes)

Sources: 2008 time use survey in China

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Average Time of Housework ( minute )

Main Activity Total Male Female

Total 164 91 234

of which:

Cooking 66 30 101

Child-care 21 11 31

male = 1

Total 2.6

Cooking 3.4

Child-care 2.8

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Female participation of child-care

Participation rate: 22 %,

The average time of female participants: 137 minutes.



More than 1/5 of women engaged in child-care,

and on average they spent more than 2 hours

on it per day.

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0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

M F M F M F M F M F M F

home < 1km 1-3km 3-5km 5-10km >10km

Minute

Cooking

Child-care

The Average Time Use by Distance between Home and Work Place


Does this result means that the time spent on child-care is rigid?

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女

0

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15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70

分钟

照顾未成年家人做饭购物洗衣打扫住所

男

0

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100

150

15-1

9

20-2

4

25-2

9

30-3

4

35-3

9

40-4

4

45-4

9

50-5

4

55-5

9

60-6

4

65-6

9

70-7

4

年龄

分钟

Responsibility by Age

Time on taking care of child

• Two segments and two peaks, both for women and for men

• Women spent more time on child-care than men do.


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女

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15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70

分钟

照顾未成年家人做饭购物洗衣打扫住所

男

0

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100

150

15-1

9

20-2

4

25-2

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30-3

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35-3

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40-4

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45-4

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50-5

4

55-5

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60-6

4

65-6

9

70-7

4

年龄

分钟

Responsibility by Age

Practice in China:

• Women usually give their first birth around 25 years old

• Husband is normally couple of years older than his wife

• The age of retire for women is 50-55, for men is 55-60


Can the result be explained by the practices?

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Responsibility, Secondary Activity

Child-care as Secondary ActivityTotal F M

Total Records 8114 6026 2088

Records /per 100 Diary by Age Group

25-34 74 22

35-44 29 14

55-64 27 14


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• With whom

• For whom

• Taking adult-care

III. A BRIEF DISCUSSION ON DIARY

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THANKS FOR

YOUR ATTENTION!

15

Documents

Global Forum on Gender Statistics, Manila, Philippines, 11-13 October, 2010 中华人民共和国国家统计局中华人民共和国国家统计局中华人民共和国国家统计局中华人民共和国国家统计局