could also be problematic when the literacy level of respondents is low. Yet, many researchers consider the diary to be the ‘gold-standard’ for collecting time use data.

Another method for collecting time use data in large-scale surveys is the _stylized questions_ approach where respondents are asked to recall the amount of time they allocate or have allocated to a certain activity over a specific period. Stylized questions are believed to be the least expensive way to measure time use, mainly because they require fewer questions and less effort to implement than time diaries. However, evidence suggests that data collected with this method might have a degree of error. For instance, stylized questions can understate the time women spend on childcare because people may classify it as work or because it is reported only when it is done as a main activity (Craig, 2002). Respondents may also have a difficult time recalling what they did over the time period that the question references and they might overreport activities that are perceived as socially “good” or acceptable. Another drawback to stylized questions is that questions must be worded so that respondents understand the types of activities for which they are to report. Getting contextual information under this method, such as where and with whom the person was during each activity, can impact negatively on the response rate. This implies that activities need to be classified within the question.

Regardless of the instrument, self-reporting the amount of time allocated to the different activities is far from being objective. For example, the various types of activities that constitute housework are variable. “Cooking” can refer to anything from micro-waving food to a large dinner in which everything is made from scratch. “Doing the laundry” might or might not include putting the clothes away. At the same time, most time use studies focus only on primary activities, ignoring the fact that individuals often perform two or more tasks at the same time. This implies that the time allocated to activities such as childcare and housework which are also performed as secondary activities is underestimated and might not present an accurate description of time use (Floro and Miles, 2003; Suh, 2016).

This paper uses data for 19 countries, including 14 stand-alone time use surveys and 5 household surveys with time use modules collected between 2006 and 2014 (Appendix Table A1). Our sample includes 7 countries from the Latin America and the Caribbean region (Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay), 3 countries from the Europe and Central Asia region (Albania, Moldova and Turkey), 2 countries from the East Asia and Pacific region (Mongolia and Timor-Leste), 2 countries from the Middle East and North Africa region (Iraq and West Bank and Gaza), 2 countries from South Asia (Bangladesh and Pakistan), two from Sub-Saharan Africa (Ghana and South Africa), and 1 from North America (USA).

Instruments and modes of data collection vary widely across countries. Data collection for 10 of the 14 stand-alone time use surveys is based on diaries, whereas the remaining 4 employ stylized questions. All the time use modules embedded in household surveys employ stylized questions. Depending on the country, the reference population ranges from 7 years and above (Guatemala) 7