Earlier chapters in this book indicated that time has many meanings, but that in capitalist societies it is primarily treated as a commodity, something that can be bought and sold. In this context, free time is an unevenly distributed and increasingly scarce resource, valuable both in itself and as an important resource for democratic participation. As discussed in Chapters Four to Eight, many feminists argue that women have less of this scarce resource than men, that this is bound up with other forms of temporal disadvantage, and that gender differences in the experience and use of time are central to the subordination of women.

This chapter begins with an overview of feminist claims about the unequal division of domestic work and women's subsequent lack of time. It assesses these claims against the available empirical evidence from quantitative time-use studies before subjecting the studies themselves to critical scrutiny. Its main focus is the US and the UK, as nations where time pressures appear particularly acute; it also draws on Australian time-use data, as this is particularly detailed. It finds that although time-use studies support feminist arguments about the value of unpaid work and women's disproportionate responsibility for this, they at first sight undermine other feminist claims around women's ‘time poverty’, men's ‘domestic absenteeism’ and the effects of feminist-inspired policies on men's behaviour. However, a closer investigation shows that the studies have been distorted by their basis in unreflectively ‘male time’ assumptions; recent, more sophisticated, research is more supportive of feminist claims. The chapter concludes that gender differences in time use do indeed remain a significant source of disadvantage for women, with negative social and political consequences for the whole of society.

Feminist claims

Women's ‘time poverty’

Most women have always known and feminists have long argued that running a home and caring for a family takes a lot of time, and that even if it is enjoyable it is a form of work. Although a trend to smaller families has combined with the widespread availability of labour-saving household equipment to reduce the burden of such work for many Western women, it remains particularly time consuming when young children are involved.