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  4. Winter 2022
  5. Time Use and Gender in Africa in Times of Structural Transformation

Journal of Economic Perspectives

ISSN 0895-3309 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7965 (Online)

Time Use and Gender in Africa in Times of Structural Transformation

  • Taryn Dinkelman
  • L. Rachel Ngai
Journal of Economic Perspectives
vol. 36, no. 1, Winter 2022
(pp. 57–80)
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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.

Citation

Dinkelman, Taryn, and L. Rachel Ngai. 2022. "Time Use and Gender in Africa in Times of Structural Transformation." Journal of Economic Perspectives 36 (1): 57–80. DOI: 10.1257/jep.36.1.57

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D13 Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
  • G32 Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
  • J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
  • J22 Time Allocation and Labor Supply
  • O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
  • Q12 Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
  • Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification