By separating remunerated work from the home, modernization makes it more difficult to combine childbearing, child-rearing, and domestic maintenance with it. Since reproduction and domestic maintenance must continue in any case, employment outside the home frequently doubles the working hours of women. All the time-budget data in the studies show this. The little extra domestic labour contributed by men hardly makes a dent in that female burden. At least in the working classes, leisure is a male, not a female, phenomenon.
Women learn new skills.
Whether in resettled villages or in migrant streams, by applying modern technologies or expanding craft opportunities, women are finding new ways to generate income. However, much of this activity is in the informal or hidden economy, so it is not reflected in official statistics. Nor do the economic rewards bear much relationship to the skill or ingenuity involved. Many of the women in these studies have resettled in semi-urban or urban areas and so lost the support of extended family structures. This makes the double load doubly hard, since there are no reserves of help to cope with child care or illness and other misfortunes.