Women’s most of the work hours go unvalued as women work more hours in a day in terms of unpaid care work than men do, a study said.
The study found that men spend far less time in care work (1 hour) and more time in productive work (8 hours) compared to women (almost 6 hours in unpaid care work and 5 hours in productive work).
The study titled “Pattern of time use of adult women and men in rural North Bangladesh: 2013-2014”, carried out by ActionAid Bangladesh, was presented yesterday at a programme marking the Women’s Day held at Dhaka University Senate hall.
The study was conducted in two districts – Lalmonirhat and Gaibandha – from November 2013 to October 2014.
Citing the difference of the regional scenario, it also said that women in Lalmonirhat spend on average 1.5 hours more time in care work and 0.7 hours on productive work, and 1.5 hours less time on leisure compared to women in Gaibandha.
Men in Lalmonirhat also spend more time in productive work (1 hour) compared to men in Gaibandha. However, sleep and rest time is similar for men and women.
“The findings indicate that the importance of women’s care work is very less in the families or society,” said Simin Mahmud, the lead researcher of the study while addressing the programme.
“The unvalued care work of women should be recognised, reduced and distributed to their male counterpart for the sake of women empowerment,” she also said adding that women would get the chance to engage themselves in productive work if they could reduce the pressure of care work.
“The country’s Gross Domestic Product does not recognise the unvalued work of the society including women’s care work though it should,” said Shamsul Alam, former director of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) while addressing the programme.
