Time use and gender in Africa in times of structural transformation

Taryn Dinkelman and L. Rachel Ngai

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Many African countries are still in the early stages of structural transformation. Typically, as economies move through the structural transformation, activities once conducted within the household are outsourced to the market. This has particular implications for women's time use. In this paper, we document that current patterns of female time use in home production in several African countries closely resemble historical time use patterns in the Untied States. We highlight two stylized facts about women's time use in Africa. First, in North Africa, women spend very few hours in market work and female labor force participation overall is extremely low. Second, although extensive margin participation of women is high in sub-Saharan Africa, women tend to work in the market for only a few hours each week, with the rest of their work hours spent in home production. These two facts suggest two different types of constraints that could slow down the reallocation of female time from home to market as economies grow: social norms related to women's market work, and a lack of infrastructure (e.g., household infrastructure and childcare facilities) to facilitate marketizing home production. We discuss recent empirical evidence related to each set of constraints and highlight new avenues for research.

JEL-codes: D13 G32 J16 J22 O15 Q12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2022-02-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Published in Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1, February, 2022, 36(1), pp. 57 - 80. ISSN: 0895-3309

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/112936/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Time Use and Gender in Africa in Times of Structural Transformation (2022)
Working Paper: Time Use and Gender in Africa in Times of Structural Transformation (2021)
Working Paper: Time Use and Gender in Africa in Times of Structural Transformation (2021)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:112936

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().