allocated to the different activities (World Bank, 2011).<sup>5</sup> We also harmonize individual and household characteristics across countries.<sup>6</sup> Education level is defined as (complete or incomplete) primary, secondary, and tertiary. Age groups are defined in the following categories: 15-24, 25-44 and 45-64 years of age. Marital status comprises three categories: married or living together, single or widowed, and separated or divorced. Children are defined as individuals below 15 years of age in all countries but Pakistan and South Africa where we could only identify children of 6 years of age and younger.

For the analysis of time use patterns over the life cycle, we define seven stages according to age and family formation variables. We distinguish between youth (15-19), individuals of prime working age (20-44) and mature adults (45-64). We then combine age groups with information on whether men and women have a partner of opposite sex in the same age group or not, and whether they have children at home.

# **3. What is the gender gap in time use patterns across countries?**

Time use patterns differ widely among women and men. Women and men spend by far the largest amount of time on personal care activities (around 11 hours per day). Among women, unpaid domestic work is the second most important activity (5 hours per day), followed closely by leisure (4.7 hours per day) and market work is the activity to which they dedicate the least amount of time (2.3 hours per day). Among men, personal care activities are followed by leisure, social and study and market work (5 hours per day). Unpaid domestic work is the activity to which men assign the least amount of time (1.9 hours per day). Table 1 presents the average time allocation by type of activity and sex in each country and Figure 1 depicts gender differences by type of activity.

While the analysis of time allocated to productive activities—paid or unpaid work—reveals that men specialize in paid work and women in unpaid domestic activities, the degree of specialization varies widely across countries. On average men dedicate 2.7 more hours per day to market activities than women, but the gender gap ranges from 4.8 more hours of paid work for men in Iraq to 24 minutes in Ghana. Women, on the other hand, allocate 3.2 more hours per day to unpaid domestic work than men, but the difference ranges from approximately 5 more hours in Guatemala, Albania and Turkey to one hour per day in Timor-Leste and Mongolia.

The patterns we observe imply that in most countries, women work more hours than men when all work—paid and unpaid—is accounted for. On average, they spend nearly half an hour more per day than men in productive activities, but the difference increases to 1.1 hours when the sample is restricted to countries where women work more hours than men. Figure 2 shows the gender gap in time allocated to productive activities. The countries with the largest differences are Albania and Uruguay, where women spend 2 more hours per day on productive activities. In the United States,

> 5 See Chapter 5 in the 2012 WDR (World Bank, 2013) and section 3 in this paper for a comparison between our calculations and those presented in the 2012 WDR.

> 6 When this information is missing, the sample of countries is restricted to only those countries with available data.

9