Time use in the NetherlandsEdition 1

How much time do we spend on household and care tasks?

We allocate a part of our time to ourselves (e.g. when we read a book or take a bath), but when we care for others we ‘give’ a part of our time away. Parents look after children and informal carers provide care to loved ones who need help. Household tasks are also often considered as ‘care’ because these often benefit others (Folbre 2006). For example household members can enjoy a meal or a clean home. The question how much the Dutch value household work and other care tasks and how this compares with the value of employment is often raised but difficult to answer (Putters 2015). In this card we show how much time the Dutch spend on the household and the care for the family and others. Did the time spent on these activities remain constant between 2006 and 2016, as was the case for employment, or do we see more changes in this domain? How have educational differences developed and what differences can be observed between different age groups and household types?

Because care is one of the main domains where gender differences manifests themselves, this card focuses on the differences between men and women. For example, Dutch and international research shows that women still spend more time on household tasks than men (Portegijs & Van Brakel 2016; European Institute for Gender Equality 2017). The time use data enable us to look in more detail at how much time men and women spend on household and care tasks and how this varies across educational groups, age groups and household types.

How much time do the Dutch spend on household and care tasks?

On average, the Dutch spend 21 hours per week on the housework and care. This is an average of three hours per day. If we include informal help provided to other households (such as unpaid odd jobs or babysitting), that adds an additional one hour per week to this average. Women spend more time on the household and care (both the total and the individual activities).

The bulk of the time spent on family care is allocated to activities such as cooking, tidying up, cleaning and doing the laundry. The Dutch spent 2 hours per day on these activities in 2016. Shopping and using services also take a fair amount of time, namely 5 hours per week (43 minutes per day).

The average Dutch person spends less than half an hour per day looking after and supervising children and providing unpaid help. However, many people do not have (young) children and/or do not have a partner, friends or family members that need help. Parents of children aged under 4 years spend 14.5 hours per week on childcare. Respondents who reported that they were providing some type of informal care spent an average of 3.5 hours per week doing so.

Time gains for women?

Technological progress has led to the development of new household appliances and enable us to shop for food and groceries, clothing and meals online. These developments could partly explain why women spend less time on the household and care in 2016 compared to 2006: women spend 1 hour 36 minutes per week less on these activities than in 2006. There was no reduction for men. As a result, the gap between men and women has somewhat narrowed. Nevertheless, in 2016 the gender gap was still almost nine hours per week.

No indications that parenthood has become more intensive

Family sociologists posit that parents are more engaged with their children than in the past. It is suggested that this ‘intensive parenthood’ is a new ideology that stimulates parents to invest more time and money in their children than before (Altinas 2016). The time use data provide no evidence for this, however there are no significant differences between 2006 and 2016 for either fathers or mothers.

No sign of an increase in informal support as yet

Despite the ageing of the Dutch population and the ambitions of the government for people to provide more informal support, people did not increase the time they spent in this activity between 2006 and 2016. The percentage of respondents who recorded providing informal support for at least 10 minutes in the diary week was 40% in 2006. In 2016 this was 10 percentage points lower. If we look only at those who provided informal support, we see large variations across time. Compared with 2006, those who provide informal support spent 40 minutes more doing so per week in 2016 (3.4 versus 2.7 hours). The average was higher in 2011, however, at 4.2 hours. In summary, it appears that the number of people providing unpaid help has declined over the last 10 years, but that those who do provide it spend more time doing so.

Has the gender gap narrowed?

Bianchi et al. (2012) investigated whether the division of household and care tasks has become more equal in America over time. The researchers looked at a long period – 1965-2010 – and concluded that the gender gap had indeed narrowed. This is partly because men increased their involvement in the household, but mainly because women decreased the time they spent on household tasks.

In this card stack we look back over a period of 10 years. Although the pace of women’s emancipation is generally slow, there are at least two reasons to expect that the gender gap has reduced.

As discussed in the Employment card, women spend slightly more time in paid employment today than in the past. In addition, women’s education level has risen and actually exceeds that of men in the younger generations (Merens & Bucx 2017). As a result, gender norms may have become more egalitarian. The data show that the gender gap in the time spent on household and care tasks decreased from 11 hours per week (2006), to 9 hours per week (2016). The gender gap thus appears to be slowly narrowing.

Finally, there are surprisingly few differences between the population as a whole and those in paid employment. Those with children spend more time on household and family care.

Differences between educational levels greatest among men

For paid employment, we found both gender and educational differences. Since employment and care are communicating vessels, it is interesting to investigate whether this finding also applies to the family and home domain. At first sight, this does indeed appear to be the case. However, a closer analysis shows that many of the differences are not statistically significant.

There are a few exceptions to this. Highly educated men seen to be more involved in child rearing as they spend more time with children than men with a low and intermediate educational level. Highly educated women spend less time on household tasks than women with a low educational level. One possible explanation is that higher educated women have less time because they are more likely to be in paid employment and have the financial resources to outsource household and care tasks (Heisig 2011). Finally, highly educated men and women spend relatively little time providing informal support to adults. It is possible that their parents and other loved ones suffer fewer health problems.

Differences between parents and people without children larger for women than for men

Women still feel more responsible for the organisation of the household and care of children than men (Wiesmann et al. 2008; Ridgeway 2011; Portegijs & Van Brakel 2016). They also work fewer hours in the life stage with children, provide them with more time for family care (see also the card Employment). This suggests that women are more likely to adapt the time they spend on family care to their personal situation. The data support this.

Cohabiting men with at least one child spend two hours more per week on household and care tasks than cohabiting men who do not (yet) have children. However, the difference between cohabiting women with and without children is much greater: 10 hours per week. This implies that the gender gap in housework and care is especially large for couples with children. (This gender gap is slightly smaller if only those in paid employment are considered). Nevertheless, even among single individuals a gender gap exists. For example, in the age group of the 20-64-years old, single women spend five hours per week more on household and care tasks than single men.

Gender gap also wide among young people and people aged over 65

To contextualize the time use of 20-64 year-olds - that was discussed in the previous paragraph -, we also look at the earlier and later life stages. Girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 19 years old spend 4 hours more per week on household and care tasks than boys and young men in this age group. Possibly, parents allocate more household tasks to their daughters than to their sons. What happens after age 65, when both partners generally no longer (need to) work? The time use of men and women in this age group is relatively similar compared to the age group 20-64-years old. However, women still spend 8 hours per week more on household and care tasks than men.