Men spend more time on self-care activities than women, KNBS report
The KNBS study says men lead in time spent on sleeping, relaxing, socialising, drinking and eating (categorised as unproductive and self-care work).
What you need to know:
- The Kenya Time Use Report says women spend an average of four and a half hours on unpaid care and domestic work.
- Men spend more time on leisure activities while women do more domestic work.
- Women living in Kilifi County spend the least amount of unpaid care in the country.
Men spend more time doing unproductive and self-care work compared to women who bear the burden of unpaid care and domestic work, a new Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) has revealed.
The Kenya Time Use Report says women spend an average of four and a half hours on unpaid care and domestic work. These include food preparation, dishwashing, cleaning, childcare and laundry. Men only spend 54 minutes on the same. This means women spend about seven times more time on unpaid care work compared to men.
Women living in Marsabit County, says the report, spend the highest amount of time in unpaid care in Kenya with seven hours and 12 minutes (30.2 per cent). They are closely followed by those in Wajir County at about six hours (26.8 per cent) and Samburu County women who spend about five hours (24.2 per cent).
Nonetheless, women living in Kilifi County spend the least amount of unpaid care in the country, with about three hours (14.5 per cent). They are followed by women living in Uasin Gishu County with 14.7 per cent and Kitui County with 14.8 per cent.
Young people
The trend is similar amongst young people with girls aged between (15-19) years spending three hours and 36 minutes more on unpaid care and domestic work, compared to their male counterparts who only spend 42 minutes a day (less than an hour) on the same.
Speaking during the unveiling of the report at a Nairobi hotel Tuesday, KNBS Board Chairperson Stephen Wainaina recognised that in the past, tasks such as household chores were not considered for computation of major statistics like Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“By understanding and valuing underestimated activities such as unpaid care and domestic work, we can allocate resources efficiently and design policies that cater for diverse needs of society. This will lead to the acceleration of achieving sustainable development goal (SDG 5) on gender equality,’’ Mr Wainaina said.
The study also says men are leading in time spent on sleeping, relaxing, socialising, drinking and eating (categorised as unproductive and self-care work). They spend 971 minutes (about 16 hours) compared to women who spend 15 hours on the same.
According to the survey, men living in Mandera County are leading in engaging in such unproductive work with about 20 hours of their day spent on such activities. They are closely followed by Samburu County with 19 hours and Garissa County with 18 hours.
National economy
Women, however, spend less time on employment related activities, estimated at a national average of 117 minutes ( about two hours) while men spend 252 minutes ( about four hours ) in a day on employment.
James Muhati, Principal Secretary at State Department for Economic Planning hailed the report for being the first of its kind in Kenya.
“The Kenya Time Use Report 2021 has put a spotlight on the ‘invisible’ unpaid care economy and highlighted the gap between distribution of domestic and unpaid work between men and women. This will help us understand the contribution of unpaid work to the national economy, a watershed moment for Kenya. We look forward to other periodic reports by KNBS in order to measure progress and enable efficient monitoring of SDG 5 on gender equality,” Mr Muhati stated when he spoke at the event.
