Women allocate more time to unpaid work while dedicating less time to paid work & leisure activities – New IMF research

New research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, has said that women allocate more time to unpaid work while dedicating less time to paid work and leisure activities.

In examining how policies can help balance the unequal distributions of care burdens, the IMF and UNFPA study indicated that two broad contrasting demographic trends present challenges for economies globally, the research said.

Read the full research here

Countries with aging populations, often advanced economies and increasingly emerging markets, anticipate a significant shrinking of the labor force, with implications for growth, economic stability, and public finances.

Economies with rapidly growing populations, as is the case in many low-income and developing countries, will face a burgeoning young population entering the labor market in the next decades—a large potential to reap the demographic dividend if the right skills and economic and social conditions are in place.

Women allocate more time to unpaid work while dedicating less time to paid work and leisure activities. New research by the IMF and @UNFPA examines how policies can help balance the unequal distributions of care burdens. Read the report here: https://t.co/lkgXcFoozO pic.twitter.com/rBAQPhjpwN

— IMF (@IMFNews) July 6, 2024

This note highlights how gender equality, in both cases, can serve as a stabilizing factor to rebalance demographic trends. As decisions regarding fertility, human capital investment, and labor force participation are interlinked, policies should aim at relaxing households’ time and resource constraints that condition these choices.

This means that, in general, in advanced economies and emerging markets, policies should facilitate women’s work–life choices and boost female participation in the labor market, whereas policies in low-income and developing countries should focus on reforms that narrow gender gaps in opportunities and support human capital accumulation.

Report

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