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The Time-Crunch Paradox
Abstract and Figures
Previous research has shown little difference in the average leisure time of men and women. This finding is a challenge to
the second shift argument, which suggests that increases in female labor market hours have not been compensated by equal decreases in household
labor. This paper presents time-use and leisure satisfaction data for a variety of western European countries, and shows that
accounting for socio-economic factors that differ between men and women is vital for understanding gender differences. We
find that working mothers have leisure levels that are much lower than those of working fathers and singles. Working mothers
are also most likely to report the least satisfaction with free time. Finding that time stress and leisure time are positively
correlated within socio-demographic groups suggests that the second shift argument is still valid, and that feelings of time stress are indeed associated with the lack of leisure time.
Keywords
Second shift
–Work-life balance–Time use–Leisure satisfaction
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... Given that the variables Commuting and intermediate trips and Bulk commuting include non-commuting activities while commuting to/from work, we follow prior research (Aguiar & Hurst, 2007Guryan et al., 2008;Gimenez-Nadal & Sevilla, 2011, 2012 and compute the total time workers spend in intermediate activities in the following categories: paid work, leisure, childcare, unpaid work, purchasing products, using services, and personal care. ...
Recent analyses have shown that commutes to and from work are not symmetric, suggesting that intermediate activities are at the root of the asymmetries. However, to model how these activities accumulate and interact within trips to and from work is a methodologically unexplored issue. We analyze the intermediate activities done while commuting, using data from the American Time Use Survey for the period 2003–2019. We show that commuting as defined in Time Use Surveys is underestimated, with significant differences that depend on whether intermediate activities are considered. Such differences are especially important in commuting from work to home and reveal gender differences. Our results contribute to the analysis of commuting behavior by proposing new identification strategies based on intermediate non-trip episodes, and by showing how commuting interacts with other non-commuting activities. We also explore intermediate episodes during commuting, which may partially explain gender differences in commuting time.
... To study the impact of role obligations, people's life stages and situations are often considered. Workers, women, parents with young children and the higher-educated have greater role demands and experience more time pressure (e.g., Gimenez-Nadal & Sevilla-Sanz, 2011;Mattingly & Sayer, 2006;Roxburgh, 2002). The ages of 24 to 50, when responsibilities, ambitions and obligations are concentrated, is associated with high levels of time pressure. ...
... When challenged by lockdowns, such as the one caused by COVID-19, implying an increase in teleworking for many workers, and thus more time in paid work in company with the spouse/partner and the children, and less time in the presence of others (both family and non-family members), men in both the UK and the US would reduce their experienced utility during paid work time, while women would increase theirs. It is also interesting that women in the UK report higher levels of experienced utility when paid work is done in the presence of children, which may be a consequence of the "double burden", or second shift, that they face -especially for those women who work full-time and have children (Gimenez-Nadal & Sevilla, 2011). If those women are able to take care of their children while they are working -which would obviously be the case in a 'lockdown' situation -the difficulties in balancing work and household responsibilities would be reduced, which would clearly improve women's well-being. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has confined millions in their homes, an unprecedented opportunity to spend more time together with family members. This paper explores subjective well-being in the uses of time for US and UK workers, differentiating between solo activities and activities done with family members, at home and outside the home. Using American and British time use surveys, we compute the instant utility associated with paid work, unpaid work, leisure, and childcare activities. OLS regressions on both men and women show that workers prefer joint leisure to solo leisure, and that significant differences exist for solo and joint market work and housework, between the sexes. Despite that, the effect magnitudes are relatively low. Furthermore, we simulate a strict lockdown situation by replacing where and with whom worker episodes would be, based on mid-2020 strict confinements. Results suggest diverging effects, since more time with the spouse/partner and children, and less time with others, seems to increase the experienced wellbeing of women, compared to that of men. The simulation exercise also reveals asymmetric effects in the US and in the UK. The conclusions of this paper may help in assessing the psychological consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns, beyond the negative economic and labour market consequences.
... Unequal sharing of household responsibilities may impose an extra burden on working mothers with children (Gimenez-Nadal and Sevilla, 2011;Gimenez-Nadal & Molina, 2016), and may lead to women having more difficulty than men in accessing certain jobs, developing their careers, or gaining promotion to decision-making positions. This may add to the so-called "glass ceiling" phenomenon, that attributes to employer discrimination the fact that fewer women are found in top positions. ...
This paper explores the gender gap in time allocation in European countries, offering a comparison of the 2000s and the 2010s, along with an explanation of the documented gender gaps, based on social norms and institutional factors. The results show that the gender gap in both paid and unpaid work has decreased in most countries, but with a significant level of cross-country heterogeneity in the size of the gender gaps. More traditional social norms are related to greater gender inequalities in paid and unpaid work, while countries with better family-friendly policies and a greater representation of women in politics and in the labour market exhibit smaller gender inequalities. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of gender gaps in Europe, and attempts to monitor the progress towards the elimination of gender inequalities. Despite that some degree of gender convergence in paid and unpaid work has taken place, there remain inequalities in the distribution of labour in European countries, and possible solutions may be related to social norms and family-friendly policies.
Objective
This paper analyzes gender inequalities in leisure time within coresident opposite‐sex couples with and without children at home in five European countries to evaluate the gendered parental impact in leisure time.
Background
In European societies, women continue to bear much of the physical and mental burden involved in running a household and managing family life resulting in greater levels of stress and time deprivation. Time spent in leisure has been associated with better physical and psychological wellness. Understanding how gender influences the distribution of leisure time among couples living with and without children at home, and how these effects differ across European countries, is important to understand individual and couples' well‐being.
Method
Drawing on information from the Multinational Time Use Study for 15,024 matched couples residing in Spain, Italy, France, Finland, and the United Kingdom, we conduct a series of ordinary‐least‐squares regression analyses with country fixed effects.
Results
The general trends reveal that women in Europe allocate less time to leisure and that mothers experience lower leisure of high quality compared to their partners when their children are below the age of 5. However, Finnish and British couples exhibit a more egalitarian distribution of leisure time regardless of their parental status, particularly when compared to Italian and Spanish ones.
Conclusion
This study unveils a gendered use of leisure time, as well as a gendered parental impact when children are young. However, the impact of women's second shift in leisure time varies across countries, suggesting a cultural and institutional effect.
Implications
These findings have implications for researchers, health professionals, and policymakers concerned with understanding and alleviating situations of overstress, time poverty, and depression among women, but especially among mothers of young children.
This study examines the impact of leisure activities on leisure domain and life domain satisfactions and subjective well‐being (SWB) and explores the differences between genders in these associations, using data from 316 middle‐aged adults. The results suggest that sports and travel & outdoor activities have the greatest impact on physiological, psychological, and relaxing satisfactions. Social activities are key ingredients in social, psychological, and physiological satisfactions as seen by men, whereas cultural activities and hobbies are important in women's psychological satisfaction. While relaxing and social satisfactions are important in men's SWB, psychological satisfaction is the most important factor in women's SWB.
This study analyses the experiences of working from home (WfH) during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it has on working mothers through the lens of “mental load.” Remote study, often lauded as a way to reduce work/life conflicts, can bring new multifaceted challenges for working mothers and, as this study shows, suddenly shifting to remote work led to the boundaries among work, care, and domestic labour becoming blurred. The data used here are from narrative interviews collected as part of the RESpondIng to outbreakS through co-creaTIve inclusive equality stRatEgies (RESISTIRÉ) Horizon 2020 project, which analyses the impact of COVID-19 policies on gendered inequalities across the EU27 and Türkiye, Serbia, UK, and Iceland. We draw on 12 narratives from working mothers in Austria, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Ireland, Estonia, Greece, Portugal, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Slovakia. Employing thematic analysis, the analysis of these narratives, illuminates the challenges and opportunities of WfH and highlights its impact on mental load. While adding to the research on WfH and working mothers, the analysis also illustrates the lessons to be taken forward as well as underscoring the importance of mental load both theoretically and empirically.
Evidence shows that working time mismatch, i.e. the difference between actual and desired working hours, is negatively related to employees’ job satisfaction. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we examine the potential moderating effect of working time autonomy on this relation and we also consider the corresponding role of gender. First, individual fixed effects panel estimations reaffirm both the negative link of working hours mismatch and the positive relation of working time autonomy to employees’ job satisfaction. Second, our results show a positive moderating relation of working time autonomy on the link between mismatch and job satisfaction. Third, our analyses hint at gender-specific differences: particularly women seem to benefit from the moderation role of working time autonomy.
A comprehensive review of the outcomes associated with work-to-family conflict was conducted and effect sizes were estimated. A typology was presented that grouped outcomes into 3 categories: work related, nonwork related, and stress related. Issues concerning the measurement of work–family conflict were also discussed. The results demonstrate the widespread and serious consequences associated with work-to-family conflict. On the basis of the results of the review, an agenda for future research was provided.
This review examines the relationship among work–family (w-f) conflict, policies, and job and life satisfaction. The meta-analytic results show that regardless of the type of measure used (bidirectional w-f conflict, work to family, family to work), a consistent negative relationship exists among all forms of w-f conflict and job–life satisfaction. This relationship was slightly less strong for family to work conflict. Although confidence intervals overlap, the relationship between job–life satisfaction and w-f conflict may be stronger for women than men. Future research should strive for greater consistency and construct development of measures, examination of how sample composition influences findings, and increased integration of human resources policy and role conflict perspectives, including whether a positive relationship between w-f policies and satisfaction is mediated by w-f conflict.
If the minimal nonpoor level of consumption requires both money and household production, then the official poverty standards do not correctly measure household needs. Any income-support program that corrects for money differences but not for time differences across households will discriminate against households with only one adult. Furthermore, such programs will provide financial incentives for households to form in certain ways. This paper sets up a two-dimensional poverty definition and then shows how this standard can be used to define voluntary versus involuntary poverty.
The barebones model, 668. — What role for goods? 669. — The complexity of time-related decisions, 670. — Externalities and
schedules, 671. — Inefficient allocations, 672. — Valuing time allocations, 673.
This paper demonstrates that skill mismatches matter for overall job satisfaction. The same is valid for satisfaction with regard to certain job domains such as pay, security, type of work and number of hours of work.