<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
<dublin_core schema="dc">
<dcvalue element="type" qualifier="biblevel" language="es_ES">Sección o Parte de un Documento</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="date" qualifier="issued" language="es_ES">1995</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="language" qualifier="iso" language="es_ES">es</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="callnumber" qualifier="null" language="es_ES">382.3 B584L(58739)</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="contributor" qualifier="author" language="es_ES">Corden, W. Max</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="doctype" qualifier="null" language="es_ES">Coediciones</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="spanish" language="es_ES">NAFTA</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="coverage" qualifier="spatialspa" language="es_ES">AMERICA LATINA</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="spanish" language="es_ES">LIBERALIZACION DEL INTERCAMBIO</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="spanish" language="es_ES">NEGOCIACIONES COMERCIALES</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="spanish" language="es_ES">TRATADOS</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="spanish" language="es_ES">ZONAS DE LIBRE COMERCIO</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="english" language="es_ES">FREE TRADE AREAS</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="coverage" qualifier="spatialeng" language="es_ES">LATIN AMERICA</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="english" language="es_ES">TRADE LIBERALIZATION</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="english" language="es_ES">TRADE NEGOTIATIONS</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="english" language="es_ES">TREATIES</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="subject" qualifier="english" language="es_ES">NAFTA</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="title" qualifier="null" language="es_ES">Una zona de libre comercio en el Hemisferio Occidental: posibles implicancias para América Latina</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="description" qualifier="null" language="es_ES">Incluye Bibliografía</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="relation" qualifier="ispartof" language="es_ES">En: La liberalización del comercio en el Hemisferio Occidental - Washington, DC : BID/CEPAL, 1995 - p. 13-40</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="project" qualifier="null" language="es_ES">Proyecto Apoyo al Proceso de Liberalización Comercial en el Hemisferio Occidental</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="identifier" qualifier="uri" language="">http://hdl.handle.net/11362/1510</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="date" qualifier="accessioned" language="">2014-01-02T14:51:16Z</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="date" qualifier="available" language="">2014-01-02T14:51:16Z</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="description" qualifier="provenance" language="es_ES">Made available in DSpace on 2014-01-02T14:51:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0
  Previous issue date: 1995</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="topic" qualifier="spanish" language="es_ES">POLÍTICA COMERCIAL Y ACUERDOS COMERCIALES</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="topic" qualifier="english" language="es_ES">TRADE NEGOTIATIONS</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="workarea" qualifier="spanish" language="es_ES">COMERCIO INTERNACIONAL E INTEGRACIÓN</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="workarea" qualifier="english" language="es_ES">INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND INTEGRATION</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="type" qualifier="null" language="es_ES">Texto</dcvalue>
<dcvalue element="bodyfulltext">
S E R I E S

ISSN 1564-4170

gender
affairs
Surveys on time use and unpaid work
in Latin America and the Caribbean
Experience to date and challenges for the future

Rosario Aguirre
Fernanda Ferrari

122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work
in Latin America and the Caribbean
Experience to date and challenges for the future

Rosario Aguirre
Fernanda Ferrari

This document was prepared by Rosario Aguirre and Fernanda Ferrari, consultants at the Division for Gender
Affairs of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), within the framework of
the United Nations Development Account project entitled “Improving quantification of women’s unpaid work
in support of poverty eradication policies”.
The opinions expressed in this document, which has not undergone formal editing, are the sole responsibility of
the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Organization.

United Nations Publication
ISSN: 1564-4170
LC/L.3678
Copyright © United Nations, December 2013. All rights reserved.
Printed at United Nations, Santiago, Chile.
Member States and their governmental institutions may reproduce this work without prior authorization, but are requested to
mention the source and inform the United Nations of such reproduction.

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Table of contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
I. Where does unpaid work stand in current debates on
well-being? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
II. Experience with surveys on time use and unpaid work in
 the region  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
A.

B.

C.


D.
E.
F.
G.

International and national regulatory frameworks for
measuring and evaluating unpaid work  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The beginnings of measurement of unpaid work and
pioneering studies in the region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
The current status of surveys in Latin American and
Caribbean countries  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1. Main characteristics by country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2. The debate over information gathering strategies:
 independent surveys versus modules in household or
 employment surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3. The debate over data-gathering instruments: time use
 diaries versus activities lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4. Classifications and the principal activities reported . . . . . . . . . . .36
The institutional framework  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Production of indicators on time use in unpaid work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Availability of information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Household satellite accounts: a work in progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

III. Analysis of recent national experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
A. Principal promoters and users of time-use surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
B. Strategies and mechanisms for disseminating the results of
 time-use surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

3

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

C.
D.

E.
F.


Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Obstacles to implementation of time use studies by national statistics institutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The academic role in producing studies and research based on information from
time-use surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Training opportunities in gender, time use, unpaid work and care issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
The impact of time-use surveys on national machineries for the advancement of women
and on the formulation of public policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

IV. Looking to the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
1. The conceptual and methodological dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
2. The political and institutional dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Annexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Annex 1. Latin America and the Caribbean: methodological characteristics of the latest time
measurement surveys  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Annex 2. Latin America and the Caribbean: objectives, activities, classifier and manuals for the
latest time-use measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
Annex 3. Latin America and the Caribbean: constitutional and legal basis and agencies
participating in the latest time-use measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Annex 4. Latin America and the Caribbean: reports, publications and presentations on latest
time-use measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Annex 5. Latin America and the Caribbean: total paid and unpaid working time (average hours
in the period of reference)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88
Annex 6. Latin America and the Caribbean: sources of the latest time-use measurements,
general and by country  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Gender Affairs Series: issues published  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Table contents
TABLE 1
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: SURVEY STRATEGY USED
IN THE LATEST ROUND OF TIME USE MEASUREMENT....................................... 32
TABLE 2
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: INSTRUMENTS USED
IN THE LAST ROUND OF TIME-USE MEASUREMENT........................................... 33
TABLE 3
Latin America and the Caribbean: Internet
availability of information on the latest time use
measurement experience................................................................................... 44

4

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Introduction
I.


Where does unpaid work stand in current 
debates on well-being?

The specialized Latin American literature has paid growing attention to the
role of families, examining their relationship to the labour market, social
transfers and services, and viewing them as providing for their members’
well-being and not merely as recipients of social benefits. From this
viewpoint, the division between paid and unpaid work is a key factor. The
fact that access to social benefits is determined more by paid work than by
unpaid work demonstrates the disadvantage facing women. The unequal
division of unpaid labour on the basis of gender and socioeconomic criteria
leads to a series of limitations that contribute, together with discrimination in
the labour market, to determining the pattern of women’s labour, social and
political participation. Contrary to the insistence of conventional economic
wisdom, women are not free to decide whether they will work, or how many
hours they wish to work.
The rights-based approach to unpaid work, especially in the area of
care-giving, starts with the recognition that care needs are not now rooted
in any specific right, but rather depend on the private availability of another
person, a family member or not, on the informal network, and on the
capacity to pay. Feminist thinking has introduced the human rights approach
to care-giving, based on recognition that over the course of the lifecycle
everyone will require care. It has raised questions about the role of the
State in compensating for the services that poor people cannot obtain in the
market, and it promotes the role of the State as the guarantor of a universal
right to provide care, to receive care, and to care for oneself. This should not
be construed as support for women seeking work, but as a right to receive
decent care, especially for dependent persons (children, the elderly, and

5

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

those with disabilities) and the right to provide care under suitable conditions for the caregiver. These rights,
both of the person cared for and of the caregiver, must be legislated, regulated and protected by the State,
while recognizing the obligations of the persons who must provide care, fathers and mothers in relation
to their children, and male and female descendents in relation to their dependent parents or grandparents.
These obligations are in conflict with the right to choose to give care or not.
The capabilities focus places the emphasis on alternative combinations of functions that a person
can fulfil. Capability is typically a kind of freedom: the substantive freedom to lead a variety of lifestyles.
Amartya Sen (2005:152) says that the concepts of human rights and capabilities can be mutually
reinforcing, so long as we do not try to subsume either concept entirely within the other. Underlying both
rights is the objective of broadening human freedom by respecting the dignity of the individual. Subsequent
applications of the capabilities approach and the reports of the United Nations Development Programme
have stressed the link between rights and human development, establishing a dialectical relation between
them. “People must be free to exercise their choices and to participate in decision-making that affects their
lives. Human development and human rights are mutually reinforcing, helping to secure the well-being
and dignity of all people, building self-respect and the respect of others.” (UNDP, 2001: 19). The feminist
perspective has made significant contributions to these approaches, broadening the list of capabilities.
Thus Ingrid Robeyns (2003:74) places in her proposed list of capabilities “domestic work and non-market
care”, as being able to raise children and take care of others, as well as time-autonomy, i.e. the freedom to
allocate one’s own time. This contribution, although it recognizes the ethically individualistic character of
the capabilities and functions approach, raises questions about inequalities in the distribution of well-being.
Recently, in “Time for Equality: Closing Gaps, Opening Trails” (2010), ECLAC proposed equality
as a normative principle and a strategic long-term objective for development, identifying challenges in the
area of policies. From this viewpoint, in addition to the development of capabilities, work opportunities
and access to social protection networks, equality is seen as a condition of citizenship, of a normative
nature in relation to civil, political, social and environmental rights. In this framework it stresses the role
of social and fiscal covenants based on equality in the processes of deliberation, redistribution and access
to different mechanisms that ensure social inclusion by allowing full exercise of rights. Moreover, ECLAC
establishes, as a vector for the region’s development, the need for structural change based on an agenda
of equal rights for all citizens which will generate progressively higher minimum standards of well-being
while strengthening the role of the State in creating more inclusive and integrated systems.
In moving forward with this equal rights agenda, the gender focus – by visualizing and recognizing
the way gender relations operate in the various fields of individual and social development – has identified
the division of labour between men and women and the differential use of time as an essential factor
in women’s economic, social and political subordination, and one that requires political will on the
part of governments in order to bring about changes that will promote the development of capabilities,
opportunities and rights for women.
Most economic and labour studies focus on work in the market, leaving aside the great number of
activities dedicated to personal, family and social well-being. In recent decades, many researchers have
criticized the main thrust of employment studies that assimilate work with a paid activity performed for
the market, demonstrating that paid participation in the production of goods and services is not enough to
satisfy human needs and to preserve social cohesion. Focusing concern on the commercial sector provides
only a partial vision of labour, whereas in the last decades of the 20th century the traditional identity
between labour and employment was questioned by empirical observations that revealed a great diversity
in the forms of work, both market and non-market.
The study of unpaid work requires specific concepts, methodologies and measuring instruments to
take account of its various modalities and their relationship to paid work and to other daily activities. In
general, there are several categories for measuring time use in activities performed outside the market: time
dedicated to personal needs, time dedicated to paid work, time dedicated to domestic work, time devoted
to family care, volunteer work and community service, and leisure time. For each of these modalities,
the conceptual instruments available and the possibilities of measurement are highly uneven, as will be

6

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

appreciated in the course of this paper. As Marie Thérèse Letablier (2001:22) notes, it is important to
consider family care separately from domestic work, as unpaid activities dedicated to other members of
the family, because it defines a set of social research problems that have their own players and institutions.
While all these uses of time are necessary and important for well-being, time-use surveys generally focus
on time dedicated to unpaid work in order to meet basic needs.
For several decades now, time use studies have provided a mass of information on the manner in
which people use their time, contributing data on the unequal distribution of total work, both paid and
unpaid, between women and men, and they can be used in turn to calculate the economic value that unpaid
work time contributes to economies. This allows us to formulate policies that will address social needs
in terms of care-giving through social co-responsibility, translating responsibilities from the family to the
public and the private sphere. Experience in the region indicates a promising path for moving forward
both in terms of political impact, with a view to placing the issue firmly on the public agenda, and in the
production of new knowledge that will improve the design of instruments and deepen the analysis of
available information.

7

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

II. Experience with surveys on time 
 use and unpaid work in the region
A. International and national regulatory

frameworks for measuring and

evaluating unpaid work
International agreements at the world and regional level concerning human
rights, the status of women and gender equality offer normative frameworks
and significant legal scope for the design, implementation and evaluation
of gender policies by States. They draw international attention to the
promotion of equal opportunities and rights for men and women in multiple
dimensions: social, political, economic and cultural.1
The first international milestone as an instrument for protecting
women’s rights and promoting gender equality was the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
approved by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979.
While CEDAW does not explicitly require the states that ratify
it to produce statistics and measurements of time use, it recognizes the
under-appreciated contribution of women to social well-being through
their family responsibilities and promotes shared responsibility between
men and women as a route to social development. The Convention
declares in its Preamble: “Bearing in mind the great contribution of
women to the welfare of the family and to the development of society, so
1



These conventions impose binding obligations on the States that approve and ratify them. The conventions, once ratified, become
powerful and enforceable legal instruments that translate into laws and standards through the agreed articles. States must create
mechanisms for implementing the commitments assumed in ratifying the conventions. Specialized commissions of international agencies
are mandated to monitor and make recommendations concerning the instruments adopted by each state.

9

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

far not fully recognized, the social significance of maternity and the role of both parents in the family and
in the upbringing of children, and aware that the role of women in procreation should not be a basis for
discrimination but that the upbringing of children requires a sharing of responsibility between men and
women and society as a whole,” (CEDAW, 1979).2
In its preamble, CEDAW also proposes to eliminate forms of discrimination against women
that inhibit and obstruct their participation under conditions of equality in social life: “ Recalling that
discrimination against women violates the principles of equality of rights and respect for human dignity, is
an obstacle to the participation of women, on equal terms with men, in the political, social, economic and
cultural life of their countries, hampers the growth of the prosperity of society and the family and makes
more difficult the full development of the potentialities of women in the service of their countries and of
humanity,” (CEDAW, op. cit.).3
When it comes to recognizing child care and making its distribution between men and women more
democratic, CEDAW proposes, in article 11.2.(c), “to encourage the provision of the necessary supporting
social services to enable parents to combine family obligations with work responsibilities and participation
in public life, in particular through promoting the establishment and development of a network of
child-care facilities”.4
The foregoing declarations mark a shift in international awareness of women’s situation, the many
forms of discrimination that violate their rights and the impact of that discrimination on social inequalities
and on social development.
During the United Nations Decade for Women (1975-1985), three Global Women’s Conferences
were held (in Mexico City, 1975, Copenhagen 1980, and Nairobi in 1985). These events led to a gradual
strengthening of international and national mechanisms for the promotion of women and development,
and they represented important progress in understanding and recognizing the various forms of work.5
A decade later (1995), the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, and it was there for
the first time that there was explicit and firm recognition of the differences between women and men with
respect to paid and unpaid work. The document compiling the resolutions and declarations of the Beijing
Platform for Action expresses this in the following manner (paragraph 68, b): “Devise suitable statistical
means to recognize and make visible the full extent of the work of women and all their contributions to the
national economy, including their contribution in the unremunerated and domestic sectors, and examine
the relationship of women’s unremunerated work to the incidence of and their vulnerability to poverty”.6
Strategic objective H.3 of the Beijing Platform for Action, with specific regard to the preparation of
data and information by sex, states the need to produce measures of time use. Paragraph 206 of the platform
proposes the following:
(f) Develop a more comprehensive knowledge of all forms of work and employment by:
(i) Improving data collection on the unremunerated work which is already included in the United
Nations System of National Accounts, such as in agriculture, particularly subsistence agriculture,
and other types of non-market production activities;
(ii) Improving measurements that at present underestimate women’s unemployment and
underemployment in the labour market;
(iii)Developing methods, in the appropriate forums, for assessing the value, in quantitative terms, of
unremunerated work that is outside national accounts, such as caring for dependents and preparing



5

2
3
4



6

http://www2.ohchr.org/spanish/law/cedaw.htm; http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm.
Idem 2.
http://www2.ohchr.org/spanish/law/cedaw.htm; http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw.htm.
The conferences do not impose binding obligations on states. Rather, they constitute forums for exchange, dialogue and the construction
of action platforms around priority issues on the international community’s agenda. They are key events of a symbolic and political
nature for promoting and formulating declarations and action programmes relating to human rights.
Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4 to 15 September 1995.

10

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

food, for possible reflection in satellite or other official accounts that may be produced separately
from but are consistent with core national accounts, with a view to recognizing the economic
contribution of women and making visible the unequal distribution of remunerated and
unremunerated work between women and men;
(g) Develop an international classification of activities for time-use statistics that is sensitive to the
differences between women and men in remunerated and unremunerated work, and collect data
disaggregated by sex.
At the national level, subject to national constraints:
(i) Conduct regular time-use studies to measure, in quantitative terms, unremunerated work,
including recording those activities that are performed simultaneously with remunerated or
other unremunerated activities;
(ii) Measure, in quantitative terms, unremunerated work that is outside national accounts, work to
improve methods to assess its value, and accurately reflect its value in satellite or other official
accounts which are separate from, but consistent with core national accounts”.7
The Platform explicitly calls for quantitative measurement of unpaid work and for improving
methods to analyse its value and to indicate it exactly in satellite or other accounts. The emphasis in this
Platform of Action is placed on recognizing the need to produce satellite accounts to assess women’s
contribution to the economy through paid and unpaid work, setting internal and external limits to countries’
production boundary.
The Beijing Platform of Action has been a milestone representing substantial progress in the
conceptual and methodological development of time-use surveys and statistics. It has had a significant
impact on the construction of international classifications of time use for placing a value on women’s
contribution to the economy, and including it in gross domestic product (GDP).
Pursuant to this proposal, in 1997 the United Nations prepared an experimental programme entitled
International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS).8 “This classification is designed
to provide a structure consistent with the conceptual framework of the System of National Accounts and
to allow for comparability with existing classifications. It is an innovative classifier that goes beyond the
categories recognized to date, by establishing criteria based on the production boundary of the System of
National Accounts. This gives rise to three broad categories: productive activities in the System of National
Accounts; productive activities outside the System of National Accounts; and Non-productive or Personal
Activities”9 (Maria Eugenia Gómez Luna, 2010).
Other international gatherings promoted by various multilateral agencies have monitored and
pursued the international process of recognizing time-use measurement: the International Conference on the
Measurement and Evaluation of Unpaid Work (Canada, 1994), the World Summit for Social Development
(Copenhagen, 1995) and the 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians of the International
Labour Organization (Geneva, 2008).
The International Labour Organization, during the 18th International Conference of Labour
Statisticians (Geneva 2008), adopted the first resolution on the measurement of working time, in which
it recognized productive activities of households as unpaid work outside the SNA boundary, but within
the general production boundary. Thus, these measurements must “serve as a basis for the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of economic, social and labour market policies and programmes
targeting labour market flexibility, social exclusion, work-life balance and the distribution of working time
7
8

9





Idem 5.
ICATUS is an experimental project to produce an International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics, developed during
the 1990s. In 1995, at its twenty-eighth regular session, the United Nations Statistics Commission requested the preparation of a draft
classification for time-use statistics. The first draft was prepared in 1997. Its latest trial version was revised in 2003.
Fifth Meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, Guidelines for harmonizing time-use surveys in Latin America and the
Caribbean (discussion paper), Mexico City, 2010.

11

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

in families, etc., with statistics on the number of hours actually worked and the number of hours usually
worked and the arrangement of these hours for all members within families and all population groups”.10
At the regional level, two important events sponsored by the Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) raised regional awareness of the need to move forward with the
measurement of time use in order to recognize women’s contribution to the economy in its productive
and reproductive dimensions. The Quito Consensus, adopted at the tenth session of the Regional
Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean (Quito, 2007) , recognizes, in paragraph
9, “the social and economic value of the unpaid domestic work performed by women, care-giving as a
public matter which falls within the purview of states, local governments, organizations, companies and
families, and the need to promote shared responsibility by women and men within the family”. 11 Within
this framework, Agreement (xxvii) proposes to “develop instruments, especially time-use surveys, for
periodically measuring unpaid work performed by women and men in order to make such work visible
and recognize its value, to incorporate their results into the System of National Accounts and to design
economic and social policies accordingly”.12
The agreements reached in the Quito Consensus on the measurement of time use place the emphasis
on the frequency of applying instruments and the necessary articulation of the outcomes for creating
gender equity policies that will promote an equitable distribution of work, paid and unpaid, between men
and women. With this Consensus, the relationship between time-use measurements and gender equality
policies begins to appear on the international stage with greater force. At the same time, greater attention is
paid to the question of care-giving as a public matter that States must incorporate into their public policies.
At its eleventh session, the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean
(Brasilia 2010) adopted the Brasilia Consensus, in which it reiterated the need to continue reinforcing
measurements of time use in the region, as gender inequalities and inequities in time use between men
and women still persist. The text resulting from the Consensus casts this idea in the following terms:
“Bearing in mind that Latin America and the Caribbean is still the most inequitable region in the world and
exhibits widening gender, ethnic and racial gaps; that the social, political, cultural and economic patterns
underlying the sexual division of labour must be changed without delay; and that the key to this is a new
equation between the State, society as a whole, the market and families in which unpaid domestic work
and care-giving are construed and treated as public matters and a responsibility to be shared among all
these spheres”.13
The recognized interaction between gender and ethnic-racial background as categories of
oppression that constitute specific discrimination has sparked the current concern over the persistence and
accentuation of social inequalities that affect women of African descent in the region, as can be appreciated
in the wording agreed in the Consensus. This also explains the need for strategic partnerships and shared
responsibility between the State, the market, families and society in constructing responses and public
policies in gender matters, primarily for dealing with the care deficit and the traditional sexual division of
labour that characterizes contemporary societies of Latin America and the Caribbean.
With respect to gender policies, the Brasilia consensus proposes (section 1(a)): “To adopt all the
social and economic policy measures required to advance towards the attribution of social value to the
unpaid domestic and care work performed by women and recognition of its economic value”.14 Once
again, the emphasis is on formulating responses to the inequitable distribution of care responsibilities
between men and women in societies, a problem that results from visualizing the total work burden in timeuse measurements and the feminization of care through the reproduction of traditional gender roles that
forge an inequitable sexual division of labour. With respect to the satellite accounts, the Brasilia Consensus

 International Labour Organization, Report of the Conference, 18th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, Geneva, 2008.
http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/9/29489/dsc1e.pdf.
12
 Idem 9.
13
 http://www.eclac.cl/mujer/noticias/paginas/6/40236/ConsensoBrasilia_ING.pdf‎.
14
 Idem 10.
10
11

12

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

proposes (section 1(d)): “To encourage the establishment, in national accounts, of a satellite account for
unpaid domestic and care work performed by women”.15 The satellite accounts appear again as an explicit
and pressing necessity, as there are few countries that have taken steps in this direction. The Brasilia
Consensus recognizes this need and expresses it as a fundamental proposal for developing measurements
as Input to countries’ economic policies.
In summary, since the last two regional conferences and the 2008 ILO conference, the agenda on
measurement of unpaid work has been expanded. In addition to the accounting focus – flowing from the
Beijing Platform of Action – those events highlighted the importance of care and the need for statistical
inputs that can serve as the basis of micro- and meso-analysis for the design of public policies.
The existing literature and systematization on time-use measurements in Latin America and the
Caribbean takes as its framework these international and regional events to justify and legitimize the
statistical efforts that countries in the region are making. These events constitute fundamental political and
symbolic milestones for the advancement and validation of commitments assumed by countries, and they
take stock of countries’ achievements and challenges in fulfilling the recommendations proposed.

B. The beginnings of measurement of unpaid work and

pioneering studies in the region
In the developed world, the measurement of time use in the activities of daily life has to do with a set of
factors linked to changes in countries’ demographic and productive structure and the expansion of new
economic sectors and leisure activities and means of communication. These studies on activities and time
use accompany historical, cultural, social and political transformations in gender relations between men and
women in societies that are identified and interpreted from a gender and rights-based focus by feminists,
States, civil society and academia.
Time-use surveys have been implemented under various modalities, primarily in developed countries
of Europe in the last third of the 20th century, in the face of demands for social and sociological research
sparked by changes in the demographic structure, the expansion of leisure activities, and the interest of
the communications media in analysing their audience according to time slots. An essential role was also
played by feminists and other stakeholders in the international gender agenda who questioned the exclusive
use of variables relating to paid work and incomes, highlighting the importance of measuring domestic
work in households as a substantive contribution to the economies of industrialized countries. These studies
were incorporated into social measurements and they measured the time dedicated to paid work, unpaid
work, care-giving, education and culture. For the social sciences and statistics this meant a break with the
traditional form of measuring work, focused exclusively on paid work.
The specialized literature recognizes Alexander Szalai as responsible for the first international
empirical research project on time use. His project, “Multinational Comparative Time Budget Research
Project” (1965-1975), was aimed at an understanding of daily life, especially the differences between
the rural and urban populations, in 11 European countries. In that study he tested current methodological
techniques for measuring time use, such as the classification of activities and the time-use log or diary.
Countries such as Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Great Britain and France were consistent
leaders in the measurement of time use and they were subsequently joined by other countries such as
Belgium, Canada, Germany, Finland, Spain, United Kingdom and United States of America.16
It was in the 1970s that time-use measurement studies proliferated in most European countries,
and that statistical and methodological associations began to be created in order to delve further into
standardized measurement criteria. Particularly important was the creation of the International Association

15
16

 Idem 11.
 See Cristina García Sainz, ECLAC, Women and Development Unit, Aspectos conceptuales y metodológicos de las encuestas de uso
del tiempo en España en El tiempo, los tiempos una vara de desigualdad, Chile, 2005.

13

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

for Time Use Research (IATUR), which developed methodological standards for applying time-use surveys,
as well as Eurostat (the Statistics Office of the European Union), which proposed standardizing time-use
surveys for European countries in order to achieve greater comparability of outcomes.
It was in the 1980s that a start was made at implementing time-use measurements in Latin America and
the Caribbean. That lag behind European countries can be explained in part by the fact that the region was
tardy in developing a conceptual and academic awareness of social, economic and political transformations
in the labour market and in families from a gender focus, and the impact of feminists was slower to emerge,
as were national machineries for the advancement of women. It also reflected the institutional and managerial
weaknesses of national statistics offices in terms of incorporating these dimensions into the statistics agenda
of countries where resources were scarce and there was little concern over the problem.
The first country to undertake a measure of time use was Cuba, in 1985, and this was in fact a
pioneering experiment in the region. In 1985, 1988 and 1997, through the National Statistics Office,
time-use modules were applied in the National Time Budget Survey and in 2001 a time-use survey was
conducted covering five municipalities (Habana Vieja, Pinar del Rio, San Juan y Martínez, Bayamo, Guisa)
for the purpose of “obtaining information from suitable persons 15 years and older on the use of time and
linking that information with basic characteristics such as sex, age, education level, skin colour, economic
situation and place of residence (urban or rural), in order to produce a horizontal analysis of results with
a gender focus”.17 While the gender perspective is mentioned as a cross-cutting theme for analysis, the
explanation of the objective mentions work without distinguishing between paid and unpaid work (an aspect
that future surveys in the region incorporated).
The data collection method involved three questionnaires, two administered by survey personnel and
one self-administered, which used a notebook to collect activities performed over 24 hours (at 10 minute
intervals) of two days selected by the person surveyed, qualifying each day as “typical” or “untypical”.
The United Nations Statistics Division provided technical and advisory support for the survey, and
methodological criteria were adapted in accordance with international time use measurement guidelines.
The United Nations classification of activities was used, and the survey covered activities performed within
the SNA production boundary, activities within the general production boundary but outside the SNA
boundary, and activities deemed non-productive.
Mexico was the second country to undertake time-use measurements in the region, in 1996, 1998,
2002 and 2009. It is among the countries that produce most in the way of time-use measurements, and it
represents substantive advances from the methodological and statistics viewpoint. In the 1996 and 1998
exercises it included modules in the National Household Expenditure Survey, targeted at persons eight years
and older, and the two applied different methodologies. The first (1996) asked about the time dedicated
to specific activities during the previous week, it did not record simultaneous activities, nor did it show
where and by whom the activity was performed. The module was designed by an interagency commission
comprising the National Statistics and Geography Institute (INEGI) and the Socio-Demographic Studies
Division of the National Programme for Women. The second survey (1998) was based on a time-use diary,
it captured simultaneous activities and it included additional questions about who was performing activities,
and where. The diary was designed on the basis of the United Nations Trial Classification of Time Use, the
Italian experiment of 1992, and the previous 1996 survey of the country.18
INEGI was the executing agency for the two experiments in the 1990s, with the support of the
National Programme for Women, created in the context of the agreements adopted by Mexico at Beijing.
This type of partnership shows the early capacity for interagency coordination between national statistics
offices and programmes for the advancement of women, which allows for continuity of measurements of
this kind and concern for gender mainstreaming.
 National Statistical Office (ONE), Encuesta sobre Uso del Tiempo, Cuba, 2002. (Informe) http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/
enfoquegenero/tiempo/eut.pdf.
18
 Patricia Méndez, National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI), Mexico: http://www.eclac.cl/deype/mecovi/docs/
taller6/27.pdf.
17

14

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

The third measurement of time use in the 1990s was undertaken in 1998 in Nicaragua, where a
time-use module was incorporated into the household living standards survey. The target population
consisted of persons six years and older, and it was applied in seven macro regions. The objectives of the
measurement were to determine how people distribute their time between productive and reproductive
activities, to quantify the time devoted to different activities, and to establish differences by sex and by
area of residence. The National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) was the executing agency, and
it worked with the support of various international organizations, including the World Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank, the United Nations Development Programme UNDP), the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA), the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA), the Norwegian Development
Agency (NORAD), and the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA).19
The three countries mentioned above were the first to undertake time-use measurements in
Latin America and the Caribbean, and they have since followed different paths. Cuba’s last survey
(following two surveys in 1987 and 1997) was conducted in 2001, as an independent survey offering
greater possibilities for collecting information and ranking measurements, although it covered only five
municipalities. Mexico is the country with the greatest continuity in surveys: it conducted a fourth round
in 2009 in an independent modality. Lastly, Nicaragua conducted its only measurement in 1998, and has
taken no further steps in this direction.
The Working Group on Gender Statistics, created by the Statistical Conference of the Americas20 in
2007, is regarded as an effective mechanism for coordinating interagency efforts and promoting initiatives
to produce and analyse gender statistics in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
This is clear in the results achieved by the Working Group on Gender Statistics, which has provided
technical assistance and training to national statistics offices and to machineries for the advancement of
women and has promoted horizontal technical cooperation. Forums have also been established for sharing
know-how and best practices with a view to strengthening the capacities of statistics agencies and women’s
programmes. The “International Meetings on Gender Statistics”, which have been held in Aguascalientes,
Mexico, for the past 13 years, as well as the international meetings of experts in surveys on time use and
unpaid work, are a clear example of efforts to share information and to consolidate a space for debating
problems and challenges in the production of gender statistics. In the context of the working group, the
United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) and the ECLAC
Gender Affairs Division have offered both classroom and virtual courses on gender statistics, care policies
and indicators of violence against women.
The Working Group on Gender Statistics has also promoted the harmonization of gender statistics,
as well as the generation of knowledge products and technical and methodological tools for the work of
statistics agencies. One of the strengths of the Working Group is the inter-agency work that combines
cooperation and technical assistance with horizontal cooperation, made possible by the experience and the
nature of the work performed by the agencies and institutions that make up the Working Group.

C. The current status of surveys in Latin American and

Caribbean countries
1.

Main characteristics by country

Since 1985, several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have been making a significant effort
to measure time use. The commitments accepted by countries under international agreements and
platforms –the Beijing Platform for Action (1995), the Quito Consensus of 2007 and the Brasilia
 National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC), Informe general de la encuesta nacional de hogares sobre medición de nivel de vida
(EMNV’98) http://www.inide.gob.ni/bibliovirtual/publicacion/informemnv98.pdf.
20
 Resolution adopted at the fourth meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, Santiago, July 2007 http://www.eclac.cl/deype/
noticias/noticias/7/29207/CEA4_resoluciones_ingles.pdf.
19

15

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Consensus of 2010– established policy frameworks for justifying measurements of this kind. International
cooperation through technical and financial assistance, international meetings of experts in time-use
statistics, and programmes for the advancement of women, official statistics institutes, academic institutions
and civil society also play a key role in promoting continued measurement of time use. Synergies and
partnerships formed between these players and forums contribute, when they exist and are operational, to
better experiments with time use measurement, better appropriation, and cross-sectoral use of results, and
in this way produce a greater impact on public policies relating to gender, employment, economic, cultural
and social matters.
At the present time, 18 countries21 have undertaken time-use measurements in Latin America and
the Caribbean. By chronological order since the first measurement experiment, this series consists of Cuba
(1985, 1988, 1997, 2001), Mexico (1996, 1998, 2002, 2009), Nicaragua (1998), Guatemala (2000, 2006,
2011), Brazil (2001, 2005, 2008, 2009), the Plurinational State of Bolivia (2001, 2010, 2011), Uruguay
(2003, 2007), Costa Rica (2004, 2011), Argentina (2005, 2010), El Salvador (2005, 2011), Ecuador (2005,
2007, 2010, 2012), Panama (2006, 2011), Peru (2006, 2010), Dominican Republic (2006, 2007), Colombia
(2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012), the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (2008, 2011), Chile (2009) and
Honduras (2009, 2011).
Among this group of 18 countries there are heterogeneities and differences with respect to
modalities, methodologies, target population, survey objectives, constitutional and legal provisions,
activities surveyed, instruments used, executing institutions and partners, geographic coverage, and
selection of indicators, among other factors.22
This diversity can be appreciated from the following presentation of the main descriptive aspects of
the latest time-use measurements in the 18 countries analysed, as well as in subsequent sections describing
other aspects of measurement that facilitate analysis using various dimensions deemed relevant.
ARGENTINA (2010)23
Name: Survey of Time Use (EDT) and Volunteer Activities
Objective: To obtain information on unrecognized work in the community by men and women that
contributes to local development, social justice and gender equity.
Modality: Independent survey
Geographical coverage: Rosario, Santa Fe
Target population: Persons 15 years and over
Sample: 1000 dwellings (2100 persons)
Instrument: Diary
Period of reference: Previous day
Classification of activities: International classifications are not used.
Legal or constitutional basis: The Third Municipal Plan for Equality of Opportunities and Treatment
between Men and Women, of Rosario, Santa Fe (2011-2015), contains a theme relating to the democratization
of family and social relations through equitable distribution of time use between men and women.

 Paraguay is not included among the countries studied, because of lack of relevant information on time-use measurements. However,
Paraguay is known to have incorporated five questions on time use into the Integrated Household Survey of 2001.
 The annexes present descriptive tables of the latest time-use measurements for the 18 countries, showing methodological characteristics,
objectives, activities, classifications and manuals, constitutional and legal basis and participating agencies, reports, publications and
presentations, total paid and unpaid work (average hours in the period of reference), modality, availability of information on the web,
instruments and general sources, by country.
23
http://www.presupuestoygenero.net.
21
22

16

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Executing agencies: Faculty of Economic Sciences and Statistics of the National University of Rosario, in
partnership with the Provincial Statistics and Census Institute of Santa Fe and the United Nations Volunteers
Programme (UNV)
Financing agencies: UN-Women
The survey was conducted in 1000 dwellings in the city of Rosario. In addition to collecting
socioeconomic information on households, each household member over 15 years was interviewed for
data on activities conducted on the previous day, in the so-called “yesterday’s diary”, in which men and
women could record the time dedicated to working for the market, to domestic work, to unpaid care,
to volunteer activities and to other activities relating to study, free time, the use of communications
media, and rest.
This survey builds upon the experiment conducted in 2005 in the city of Buenos Aires, which
was the first time-use survey in Argentina. What was particular about the Rosario survey is that, beyond
gathering data on time use, it was the first in the country to ask questions about volunteer activities, i.e.
unpaid activities that people perform spontaneously and freely.
The Faculty of Economic Sciences and Statistics of the National University of Rosario played an
active role in conducting the survey, in partnership with the provincial statistics agency and with support
from UN-Women.
BOLIVIA (Plurinational State of) (two pilot surveys 2010/2011)24
Name: Household Time-Use Survey
Objective: To measure the paid workload plus the unpaid workload; to generate input for a future satellite
account on unpaid work of households.
Modality: Module within the general household survey
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons aged 7 years and over
Sample: 5744 dwellings
Instrument: Diary (10-minute intervals)
Period of reference: Random day and previous day
Classification of activities: Bolivian Classification of Time-Use Activities (CATBOL) and Classification
of Time-Use Activities for Latin America and the Caribbean (CAUTAL)
Legal or constitutional basis: Article 338 of the Bolivian Constitution (2009) provides that “the State
shall recognize the economic value of household work as a source of wealth and shall quantify it in the
public accounts”. The National Statistics Institute (INE) is instructed to include this topic for the purpose
of generating public policies.
Executing agencies: National Statistics Institute (INE)
Financing agency: INE and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of
Women (UN-Women)
There is little information available on the Web with respect to the design and process of the Bolivian
pilot experiments (2010/2011) or the outcomes obtained. However, the data collected reveal an emphasis on
improving the measurement of time use in the following areas: expanding coverage to the national territory,
constructing an activities classification system for the country (CATBOL) that is aligned with the ECLAC
24

 National Statistics Institute (INE) (Presentation), Encuesta de Uso de Tiempo en Hogares (EUTH). Primeros avances en México, 2010.

17

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

proposal (CAUTAL), explicit definition of paid and unpaid work, and reference to the need to generate
inputs for a future satellite account on households’ unpaid work. By way of background it may be noted
that in 2001 a question on time use had been included in the Household Employment, Underemployment
and Unemployment Survey.
The lower age cut-off point for the survey population is seven years, revealing the special
concern to capture data on child labour, something of particular importance in this country. However, in
methodological terms, children are less reliable in their recollection and reporting of activities from the
previous day. As recognized in the United Nations Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring
Paid and Unpaid Work,25 “time-use surveys employ a minimum age requirement. This minimum cut-off
is primarily determined by the analytical objectives of the survey. Country practices show minimum age
ranges from 6 to 15 years. In general, the lower the age limit that can be employed, the more complete the
picture that can be obtained about the time use of the population. From a global perspective, determining
a lower age limit is an issue of some consequence. In many areas of the world, children make a crucial
contribution to their family’s economic welfare. (...) However, the feasibility of data collection and the
quality of time-use data collected from young people need to be taken into account in deciding on the
minimum age limit”.
With respect to the instruments selected for the pilot tests, they were implemented in two phases.
The first involved a self-administered time log for one day of the week, with 10 minute intervals. In the
second phase, a non-self-administered diary for the previous day was used, and 2000 other dwellings were
added to the sample size.
BRAZIL (2009/2010)26
Name: Time-Use Survey (separate from the National Permanent Household Survey, PNAD)
Objectives: To measure the time that people dedicate to travel from one place to another (for work, study
etc.), the time people devote to domestic chores and volunteer time; to measure paid work performed in
government and non-governmental institutions and in households.
Modality: Independent survey
Geographical coverage: Pará, Pernambuco, Río Grande do Sul, São Paulo and the Federal District.
Target population: Persons 10 years and over
Sample: 11,940 households
Instrument: Time-use diary (15 minute intervals)
Reference period: Random day
Classification of activities: ICATUS
Legal or constitutional basis: The second National Plan of Policies for Women, of the Special Secretariat
on Policies for Women, 2009-2011, calls for the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and
the Special Secretariat to conduct nationwide research on time use.
Executing agencies: Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the Special Secretariat
on Policies for Women.
Associated agencies: Special Secretariat on Policies for Women, Committee on Gender Studies and Time
Use, and Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA)
 Developed by the United Nations in 2005 as a reference tool for countries interested in conducting time-use surveys and in facilitating
the harmonization of methods and practices in collecting, processing and disseminating time-use statistics.
26
 IBGE: Presentation by Fatmato Ezzahrá Schabib Hany, Comité y estadísticas de género en Brasil VII encuentro internacional de
estadísticas de género: empoderamiento, autonomía económica y políticas públicas. Mexico City, 2011.
25

18

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Financing agencies: IBGE and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
Brazil is among the countries of the region that have implemented an independent survey, and
like other countries of the region it did not conduct measurement at the national level, but rather for
five selected states. By way of background, since 1992 Brazil has included questions in the PNAD on
“domestic affairs”.
Brazil is one of the countries using the diary as an instrument for time use data, at 15 minute
intervals for a random day, in contrast to those that specify the day before the survey (“yesterday”). The
diary tool used is self-administered and computers are utilized for the fieldwork and the tasks of codifying
and processing. In the first interview, the survey administrator provides a hardcopy diary or time log that
the person is supposed to complete with principal and secondary activities, and a second visit is arranged.
At that time, the administrator reviews the diary. In this pilot measure activities were classified using the
United Nations Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS).
The time measurement exercise in Brazil was conducted in association with the Special Secretariat
on Policies for Women and the Committee on Gender and Time Use Studies, created in 2008,27 with a view
to designing the survey and incorporating the gender focus. Financial support was provided by UN-Women,
operating in partnership with the programme for women’s advancement and the official statistics agency.
CHILE (2009)28
Name: Experimental Survey on Time Use
Objectives: To quantify the total workload (paid and unpaid); to measure the distribution by sex of
domestic unpaid work within the household; to estimate the use and distribution of time dedicated to health
care; to quantify the time dedicated to leisure, study, travel and other activities.
Modality: Independent survey
Geographical coverage: Greater Santiago
Target population: Persons 12 years and over
Sample: 1571 dwellings
Instrument: Diary (30 minute intervals)
Reference period: Previous day
Classification of activities: ICATUS
Legal or constitutional basis: The Plan for Equality between Men and Women (2010-2020) of the
National Women’s’ Service (SERNAM) of the Government of Chile, under the theme of social coresponsibility, calls for developing methodologies to measure unpaid care work performed by women
as caregivers for children, persons with severe disabilities and elderly persons, in order to calculate
their economic contribution and include it in the national accounts, for the urban and rural sectors. In
addition, there is a plan to create a periodic measurement system of time distribution of productive and
reproductive work between men and women in different socioeconomic contexts and different stages of
the life cycle, which would constitute the basis for new or revised policies on work/family reconciliation
and shared responsibility.

 This was created to encourage incorporation of the gender dimension in the production and analysis of official statistics. It is an
interagency grouping composed of the Special Secretariat on Policies for Women of the President’s Office (SPM/PR, as the coordinating
body), IBGE, the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).
28
 INE Departamento de Estudios Sociales, Encuesta Experimental sobre Uso del Tiempo en el Gran Santiago. Antecedentes Metodológicos
y Principales Resultados. http://www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/estadisticas_sociales_culturales/encuesta_tiempo_libre/pdf/
presentacion_eut_17_04_2009.pdf.
27

19

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Executing agencies: National Statistics Institute (INE)
Associated agencies: Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Ministry of Health, and a technical
working group comprising the National Statistics Institute , the Ministry of Health and SERNAM
Financing agencies: INE, PAHO, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
Chile conducts an experimental independent survey covering Greater Santiago. It is among those
countries using the diary for the previous day, with 30 minute intervals, and activities are classified in
accordance with ICATUS.
The objectives are to measure the total workload defined as the sum of time dedicated to paid and
unpaid work, and the emphasis is on domestic work performed within the household and in providing health
care. This last aspect may reflect the coordination established with PAHO and the Ministry of Health in
terms of making health a priority theme of the survey.
SERNAM and the Ministry of Health serve as the executing agencies; the IDB and UNIFEM provide
technical and financial support.
COLOMBIA (programmed for 2012)29
Name: National Time-Use Survey
Objectives. To obtain statistical information for measuring the time that people dedicate to different
types of paid, unpaid and personal activities; to serve as input for constructing the satellite account for
unpaid work.
Modality: Independent survey
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons 10 years and over
Sample: 54,000 households
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Day
Classification of activities: CAUTAL and ICATUS
Legal or constitutional basis: Law 1413 of 2010 requires the Office of the President of the Republic
to “include the care economy in the system of national accounts in order to measure the contribution
of women to the country’s economic and social development, and as a basic tool for defining and
implementing public policies”. The Time-Use Survey is defined in Law 1413 as “a methodological
instrument for measuring the time that people dedicate to different activities, paid and unpaid work, and
personal activities”.
The National Public Policy on Gender Equity for Women (2012-2022) of the Presidential Council on
Equity for Women, referring to efforts to reconcile working responsibilities with family obligations,
calls for studies and discussion to provide a better understanding of time use within households and the
distribution of care-giving work in order to dimension the division of roles within the home, considering
rural and urban, gender and ethnic differences. It also calls for adjusting the national accounts to reflect
unpaid domestic work and care-giving work, traditionally performed by women, and currently classified
as economically inactive.
Executing agencies: National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE)
29

 DANE (Presentation) Correa Mónica, Encuesta Nacional de Uso del Tiempo ENUT Colombia 2012.

20

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Associated agencies: Presidential Council on Equity for Women
Financing agencies: Revolving Fund of the National Administrative Department of Statistics
(FONDANE).
Colombia’s survey was programmed for 2012, but no information on outcomes is yet available. The
survey has the advantage of being an independent one, of national scope, publicly financed, and based on
a sizable sample. Activities are classified in accordance with the Classification of Time-use Activities for
Latin America and the Caribbean (CAUTAL) and ICATUS.
The legal basis for the survey in fact represents a priority instrument of the Government of Colombia
that accepts concepts such as the “care economy” for inclusion in the national accounts, recognizes
women’s contribution to social well-being, and gives a solid legal status to time-use surveys as a valid
instrument for measuring paid and unpaid work.
The associated agencies include the Presidential Council on Equity for Women.
COSTA RICA (2011)30
Name: Time-Use Survey for the Greater Metropolitan Area
Objectives: To provide detailed information sufficient for understanding the economic contribution of
women and men in the form of unpaid work; to make available to government authorities, the academic
sector, business, NGOs and international cooperation agencies, as well as society in general, information
essential to the formulation of public policies on gender equality and to the social and economic valuation
of unpaid domestic work.
Modality: Independent
Geographical coverage: Greater Metropolitan Area
Target population: Persons 12 years and over
Sample: 2520 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Week
Classification of activities. Based on Mexican experience: Mexican Classification of Time Use Activities
(CMAUT) and CAUTAL
Legal or constitutional basis: In 2011, the Parliamentary Services Department of the Legislative
Assembly approved a bill “to include in the system of national accounts the contribution of unpaid work
of procreation and care of children, performed by the workforce, by older persons and by persons with
disabilities, in the home”.
The bill authorizing the project to keep accounts of the contribution of domestic work to the economy
and society was unanimously approved in 2012 (resolution 18,073) by the 2011 Women’s Committee of the
Legislative Assembly. It is currently pending approval by the full Legislature. Once it is approved, it will
be possible to appreciate and evaluate the contribution that unpaid work in the home, performed primarily
by women, is making to society and the national economy.
The bill calls for periodic “time-use surveys”, the results of which will be used as input to the “satellite
account on unpaid domestic work” within the system of national accounts handled by the central bank. The
National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC) will be responsible for coordinating inter-agency efforts
to put the survey into practice.
30

 INEC, Costa Rica, Experiencias Metodológicas de la Encuesta Uso sobre Tiempo Gran Área Metropolitana, presented at the tenth
international meeting of experts in surveys on time use and unpaid work, Mexico 2012.

21

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Executing agencies: National University (UNA), National Women’s Institute (INAMU), and National
Statistics and Census Institute (INEC).
Associated agencies: Inter-Agency commission for attributing a value to women’s work, coordinated by
INAMU, comprising the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Ministry of Planning and Economic
Policy, the Women’s Studies Centre of the University of Costa Rica, and the Population Studies Institute.
Financing agencies: UNA, INMUJERES and INEC
Costa Rica had already conducted a national measurement exercise in 2004. In 2011, together with
an independent survey on time use, specific questions were included in the National Household Survey.
In the most recent independent survey (2011), the National University appears as a key player, together
with INEC and INMUJERES; however, the coverage of the survey is not national, but is restricted to
the metropolitan area. The questions covered the week prior to the survey, and CMAUT and CAUTAL
were used for classifying activities.
Costa Rica does not appear to have any legal basis for gathering time-use statistics, although the
draft law approved by the legislative assembly (2011) and subsequently by the Commission on Women’s
Work (2012) provides for inclusion of the care economy in the System of National Accounts. If the
bill is approved by the plenary legislature, the first accounting of domestic work in the country will be
conducted. With respect to partnerships and coordination and partnership with other agencies, INAMU
is involved, as are the National University of Costa Rica and the Commission on Women’s Work, created
in 2000 as an inter-agency technical body to design and implement the measurement of paid and unpaid
work performed by women.
There is a specific objective of highlighting inequities in the distribution of paid and unpaid work,
with the emphasis on domestic work, for formulating cross-sectoral and inter-agency policies.
ECUADOR (2012)
Name: National Time-Use Survey
Objectives: To generate information on the gender distribution of time between paid activities,
unpaid activities, and free time, as input for the analysis and formulation of public policies through
implementation of an independent national time-use survey in Ecuador; to develop a methodology for
measuring time use independently; to generate information on activities and behaviour of individuals
and the distribution of their time, with respect to work, cultural activities and leisure, while taking into
account ethnic diversity; to provide information on unpaid production of care services in the home; in
other words, to have information on unpaid work dedicated to caring for children, the sick, the disabled,
and older persons who require constant attention; to have information needed for implementing the Plan
Nacional del Buen Vivir [“National Plan for Living Well”] and the Millennium Development Goals that
will allow the Government to design policies to achieve gender equality; to have statistical information
for construction of the satellite account on unpaid work.
Modality: Independent survey
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons 12 years and over
Sample: 22,968 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Week
Classification of activities: CAUTAL

22

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Legal or constitutional basis: The 2008 Constitution recognizes “quantifying and recognizing the
contribution of human care work, self-consumption and self-support”. Among the general provisions,
provision 8 provides that “the State, through the corresponding institutions, shall compile statistics and keep
satellite accounts as part of the System of National Accounts, for use in measuring the economic activity
of individuals and organizations comprising the Economía Popular y Solidaria and the Sector Financiero
Popular y Solidario (“the popular and social economy and financial sector”), and activities of family selfconsumption and human care”. The Plan Nacional para Buen Vivir (2009-2013), enshrined in the new
Constitution, recognizes the importance of “social reproduction” activities as a fundamental theme of an
equitable, socially responsible development model. The policy guidelines for this plan include quantifying
and highlighting the contribution of human care, self-consumption and self-support, and recognizing,
rewarding and providing social protection to reproductive care in the household. The Equal Opportunities
Plan 2005-2009, declared as government policy by Executive Decree 1207-A of 9 March 2006, calls for a
national time-use survey as strategic input for the formulation of policies with a gender focus.
Executing agencies: INEC, the Transition Commission to the Council on Women and Gender Equality.
Financing agencies: INEC, the Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir, and the Ley Orgánica[Framework Law] of
the Economía Popular y Solidaria and the Sector Financiero Popular y Solidario.
In Ecuador’s case, we selected the 2012 measurement exercise because it employed an independent
modality, and it is the most recent one. Measurements were taken in 2010 and 2012, but they used a shortform questionnaire module (with approximately 37 questions) intended to track and update some of the
dimensions relating to time use in the country. Ecuador presents a specific combination of measurements
using in-depth modules (2005 and 2007) attached to the Integrated Household Surveys and measurements
using the shortened questionnaires (2010 and 2012). The difference between these two modalities has to
do with a number of questions included in the measurements.
In comparison with other countries of the region, Ecuador exhibits strengths in many dimensions.
It conducts its measurements through in-depth modules and short questionnaires, in order to achieve
periodicity. It has used a list of activities according to the ICATUS and CMAUT classifications and since
2007 it has been using the CAUTAL classifier for measuring time use. It has a constitutional basis that
recognizes the quantification and recognition of care-giving and establishes the measurement of satellite
accounts as part of the SNA.
The independent National Time-Use Survey is intended to generate information on the gender distribution
of time among paid and unpaid activities and free time, as input for the analysis and formulation of public
policies. It also seeks to generate information on the unremunerated production of care services in the home, i.e.
on unpaid work dedicated to caring for children, the sick, the disabled, and older persons who require constant
attention. Lastly, this information will be useful for implementing the Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir and the
Millennium Development Goals, by allowing the Government to design policies to achieve gender equality.
EL SALVADOR (2011)31
Name: Time-Use Module of the Multipurpose Household Survey
Objectives: To identify the total burden of paid and unpaid work among the population; to visualize statistically
the division of the workload between men and women; to recognize the structure of the distribution of tasks
among members of the family and the distribution of time in the pursuit of activities such as productive work,
domestic work, community work, education or technical training, recreation, and personal care.
Modality: Module
Geographical coverage: National
31

 Ministerio de Economía Dirección General de Estadística y Censos. http://www.minec.gob.sv/index.php?option=com_contentview=
articleid=201:digestyccatid=1:noticias-ciudadanoItemid=77.

23

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Target population: Persons 10 years and over
Sample: 3728 households
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Previous day
Classification of activities: International classifications are not used
Legal or constitutional basis: The National Policy for Women (2011-2014), enshrined in the Law of March
2011, and headed by the Salvadoran Institute for Women’s Development (ISDEMU), institutionalizes the
measurement of time use by men and women in its section on care and social protection of the National
Statistics System and calculates the contribution of unpaid domestic work to the national accounts. .
Executing agencies: Ministry of Economy, General Directorate of Statistics and Census.
Financing agencies: Ministry of Economy, United Nations Population Fund, UN-Women,
and UNICEF
The methodology used was to apply a module with 47 questions about time use on the previous
day. International classifications are not used for the design of activities.
The executing agencies do not include any associated with national programmes for the
advancement of women. However, the measurement was financed and assisted technically by UNFPA,
UN-Women and UNICEF, as well as with domestic funding from the Ministry of Economy.
GUATEMALA (2011)32
Name: Time-Use Module in the National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI)
Objectives: To measure the time dedicated by members of the household by type of activity, sex, age,
education etc.; to appreciate the less “visible” aspects of the daily work of men and women in order to
quantify gender inequalities in the total workload and in domestic work and unpaid care; to analyse the
impact of time use in terms of work within and outside the home and to determine poverty gaps and
relationships; to provide information for the design of public policies to promote gender equity.
Modality: Module
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons seven years and over
Sample: 14,337 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Previous day
Classification of activities: International classifications are not used
Legal or constitutional basis: The National Policy for the Promotion and Integral Development of Women
(Law of March 1999), headed by the Presidential Secretariat for Women, provides that the National
Statistics System (NSS) must see to the collection and systematization of data, including specific modules
in existing instruments for measuring progress with disaggregation by sex and ethnic origin.
Executing agencies: National Statistics Institute (INE)
Associated agencies: National Statistics System (SEN), Secretariat of Planning and Programming
(SEGEPLAN), Universidad Rafael Landívar of Guatemala, and ECLAC.
32

 INE, Uso del Tiempo en Guatemala Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida. ENCOVI 2011.

24

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Financing agencies. ECLAC, Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID),
INE, World Bank, UNDP, UNFPA, Swedish Development Agency (SIDA), Norwegian Development
Agency (NORAD).
Guatemala administered a module with 27 questions on activities performed the day before.
International classifications were not used. The survey had national coverage.
There was no legal framework nor any association or co-execution with programmes for the
advancement of women. However, there was broad support from international agencies, including
ECLAC and academia through the Universidad Rafael Landívar.
HONDURAS (2011)33
Name: Time-Use Module in the Permanent Multipurpose Household Survey
Objectives: To use information as an instrument for analysis on participation and time dedicated to
domestic activities, unpaid work in the community, education and personal care.
Modality: Module
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons 10 years and over
Sample: 21,330 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Previous day
Classification of activities: International classifications are not used
Legal or constitutional basis: The second Gender Equality and Equity Plan 2010-2022 (Executive Decree
Law PCM-028-2010) of the National Women’s Institute establishes as strategic objectives the generation
of legal and institutional mechanisms to recognize women’s reproductive work and incorporate it into the
national accounts and into gross domestic product (OE 4.1), and to develop, implement and publish the
Time-Use Survey as guidance in the formulation of gender equality policies in the labour area, and the
valuation of reproductive work in national accounts (OE 4.3).
Executing agencies: National Statistics Institute (INE)
Associated agencies: National Women’s Institute, ECLAC, and the Economic Agenda for Women
Programme.
Financing agencies: INE and UNIFEM
This is the first measurement conducted in the country. The objectives relate to domestic work and
community work, as in other countries, where unpaid care is included in domestic work.
MEXICO (2009)34
Name: National Time-Use Survey
Objectives: To record the time dedicated by persons 12 years and over to their daily activities and to provide
statistical input for measuring all forms of work, paid and unpaid, performed by individuals; to recognize
the scope of total work, paid and unpaid and the distribution of unpaid activities in the household; to provide
inputs for evaluating unpaid work and preparing household satellite accounts for measuring the contribution
33
34

INE: http://www.ine.gob.hn/drupal/node/213.
 National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI): “Encuesta Nacional sobre el Uso del Tiempo. ENUT 2009. Síntesis
metodológica”. http://www.inegi.org.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/metodologias/encuestas/hogares/sm_ENUT2009.pdf.

25

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

of women and men to the economy, with a gender focus; to provide a broad database on educational, cultural,
leisure and personal care activities, for use in the analysis and design of public policies.
Modality: Independent
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons 12 years and over
Sample: 17,000 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Week
Classification of activities: CMAUT and ICATUS
Legal or constitutional basis: Article 21 of the National Statistics and Geographical Information System
Act provides that the National Subsystem of Demographic and Social Information is to “generate a set
of key indicators addressing at least the following topics: population and demographic dynamics, health,
education, employment, income distribution and poverty, public safety and the administration of justice,
government and housing”. Under that Act, a permanent Specialized Technical Committee on information
with a gender perspective was formed to create the Satellite Account on Domestic Work.
Executing agencies: National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) and the National Women’s
Institute (INMUJERES).
Financing agencies: INEGI. The Gender Equity Committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the sixtieth
legislature approved a budget allocation for the survey in 2009.
With the latest survey, Mexico can now point to one of the most solid experiments in the region, not
only for its background but also for the strengthening process that it has gone through in various dimensions.
The survey is independent in nature, national in coverage, and asks questions about activities performed during
the previous week, using the CMAUT and ICATUS classifications of activities. The construction of specific
local systems, as Mexico has done through the CMAUT and the Plurinational State of Bolivia has done with
CATBOL, reflects the need for specific criteria adapted to each country’s national circumstances.
The objectives of this survey are significant, as it is intended to measure all forms of work, and
to provide input for satellite accounts and for the design of public policies. The reference to the need to
draw on the results in order to construct policies and public responses reveals a virtuous circle between
measurements, social and economic utility of the data, and political impact.
Although there is a legal basis for producing statistics, it contains only a general reference
covering the areas of employment, poverty and income, with no specific mention of time use or of paid
and unpaid work.
Participating agencies include INMUJERES as the co-executing agency and the Gender Equity
Committee of the Chamber of Deputies as the body responsible for the survey budget.
NICARAGUA (1998)35
Name: Time-Use Module in the Survey of Households Living Standards
Objectives: To determine how the population distributes its time among productive and reproductive activities;
to quantify the time dedicated to different activities; to establish differences by sex and by area of residence.
Modality: Module

35

INEC, Informe general de la encuesta nacional de hogares sobre medición de nivel de vida (EMNV’98).

26

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Geographical coverage: Seven macro regions
Target population: Persons 6 years and over
Sample: 2325 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Previous day
Classification of activities: International classifications are not used
Legal or constitutional basis: Not reported
Executing agencies: National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC)
Financing agencies: INEC, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, UNDP, UNFPA, SIDA, NORAD
The survey contained questions and activities performed on the previous day, and did not use
international classifications. The statement of objectives differs from the usual model for time use
measurement in that it distinguishes between productive and reproductive forms of work.
In terms of participants and promoters, the experiment enjoyed broad support from international
cooperation but not from gender mechanisms and institutions. Nicaragua is another case where continuity is
lacking, as the survey was conducted only once, in 1998, using a module that covered seven macro regions.
PANAMA (2011)36
Name: Time-Use Survey
Objectives: To record the time that men and women dedicate to unpaid domestic chores in order to assign a
value to the economic contribution of these activities; to recognize gender inequities in the overall workload.
Modality: Independent
Geographical coverage: National urban
Target population: Persons 15 years and over
Sample: 15,420 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Week
Classification of activities: No information available
Legal or constitutional basis: Not reported
Executing agencies: National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC)
Associated agencies: National Women’s Institute
Financing Agencies: INEC, UN-Women and UNFPA.
This was the first time that Panama had conducted an independent survey of national urban coverage.
The experiment was headed by INEC, with planning assistance from INAMU of Costa Rica and technical
assistance from UNFPA and UN-Women.
Panama is one of the few countries that set an age limit below 15 years. The survey contained more
than 108 questions on time use.

36

 INEC, Panama, tenth international meeting of experts on time use and unpaid work surveys, Mexico 2012.

27

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

PERU (2010)37
Name: National Time-Use Survey
Objectives: To appreciate the overall workload, considering different types of work, differentiated by
gender; to determine the male and female characteristics concerning the distribution and use of time in
the tasks and/or activities of daily life as needed for personal, family and social development; to show the
gender differences in time use for the various activities between the country’s social groups and regions.
Modality: Independent survey
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons 12 years and over
Sample: 4580 dwellings
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Week
Classification of activities: ICATUS
Legal or constitutional basis: Law 28,983 on equal opportunities between women and men provides
guidelines for the Government in improving the official statistical system by incorporating data
disaggregated by sex. The National Plan for Equal Opportunities between Women and Men (2006-2010)
of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Social Development, together with the INEI, intends to design and
apply instruments for gathering official statistical information with the gender indicators.
Supreme Decree 027-2007 PCM (article 2.2 concerning gender equality) calls for “guaranteeing the full
exercise of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of women”. Law 29,700, published in
June 2011, includes a satellite account for unpaid work in the national accounts, with particular emphasis
on unpaid domestic work, through application of time-use surveys. This law names the National Statistics
and Informatics Institute (INEI) as the institution responsible for fulfilling those obligations. It also
defines the time-use survey as the methodological instrument for measuring the dimension of unpaid
work and estimating the total number of hours dedicated to it. At the same time, the satellite account
will make it possible to link and compare that information with other sectors or socioeconomic variables
recorded in the national accounts, as a supplement to the available information.
Executing agencies: National Statistics and Informatics Institute (INEI)
Associated agencies: Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Development, the “Manuela Ramos” Movement,
Gender Affairs Division of ECLAC.
Financing agencies: INEI, UNFPA and UN-Women
Peru shows a number of strengths in its latest measurement of time use: this is an independent
survey, its declared objectives are to measure all forms of work, recognizing paid and unpaid work as key
activities for family and social development with a gender focus. The methodology is based on questions
concerning activities performed in the previous week, and is of national coverage.
There are important legal foundations with respect to gender, and although they do not constitute
high-ranking instruments they reflect the progress of the gender mechanisms at the legal level and the
importance of time-use measurement for guaranteeing gender equality.
Partner agencies include the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and Development, a women’s organization
of civil society, and ECLAC as a United Nations agency. There is close coordination between government,
machineries for the advancement of women, civil society and international cooperation. Financial
contributions come from United Nations agencies, UNFPA and UN-Women.
37

 Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys in the Andean Community, Peru, 11 to 23 April, 2012.

28

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (2007)38
Name: The Demographic and Health Survey contains two questions on time use
Objectives: Not reported
Modality: Module
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Women 15-49 years; and women and men 15-59 years.
Sample: 32,431 households; 27,195 women (individual questionnaire); 27,975 men (individual
questionnaire)
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Week
Classification of activities: International classifications are not used
Legal or constitutional basis: Not reported
Executing agencies: Social and Demographic Studies Centre (CESDEM)
Associated agencies: Presidential Council on AIDS (COPRESIDA)
Financing agencies: United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank, Executive
Commission for Health Sector Reform (CERSS), MEASURE DHS, Macro International Inc., USA.
There is little information available on the web for the Dominican case. This experiment is very
sketchy in measuring time use, as it uses only two specific questions in the context of the Demographics
and Health Survey. The age cut-off points are atypical; nothing is reported with respect to objectives or
legal basis.
BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA (2011)39
Name: Time-Use Survey
Objectives: To generate basic statistics on the time dedicated by the members of Venezuelan households
to daily activities, from the perspectives of gender, lifecycle and social class; to measure the time dedicated
by household members to unpaid work; and to quantify the time that household members dedicate to paid
work in the formal and informal sectors of the economy.
Modality: Independent
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons 12 years and over
Sample: 10,500 households, 32,500 persons
Instrument: Diary
Reference period: Previous day
Classification of activities: ICATUS
Legal or constitutional basis: Not reported

 Oficina Nacional Estadística (ONE) (Boletín), Panorama Estadístico: Uso del tiempo en los hogares: una aproximación a su medición.
Dominican Republic, 2009.
39
 Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV) (Presentation), I Encuesta del Uso del Tiempo para
Venezuela. 2011.
38

29

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Executing agencies: National Statistics Institute (INE)
Associated agencies: Central Bank of Venezuela, Ministry of the Popular Power for Planning and Finance
Financing agencies: INE, Central Bank of Venezuela
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is among those countries that conducted their latest
measurement through an independent survey, of national coverage, applying a diary for the previous day,
and using the ICATUS classification of activities. In the process of information gathering, the respondent
uses electronic means to record, process and codify information.
Its objectives include the quantification of unpaid work from three innovative approaches: gender,
generational and social class. However, programmes for the advancement of women are not involved in
the exercise.
URUGUAY (2007)40
Name: Time Use and Unpaid Work Module in the Continuous Household Survey
Objectives: To provide information on the time that male and female household members, 14 years and
older, dedicate to unpaid activities; to establish relationships between unpaid and paid work; to provide
information for quantifying the economic and social contribution of unpaid work; and to prepare a set of
basic indicators for understanding and taking decisions on gender equality policies.
Modality: Module
Geographical coverage: National
Target population: Persons 14 years and over
Sample: 4,100 households, 8,973 persons
Instrument: List of activities
Reference period: Week
Classification of activities: ICATUS
Legal or constitutional basis: Law 18,104 on the promotion of equal rights and opportunities between
men and women (2007). National Plan for Equality of Opportunities and Rights 2007-2011 (INMUJERES).
Executive Decree 184/007 of 2007 established the general framework for fulfilling the government
commitment to introduce the gender perspective into public policies. The National Plan for Equality of
Opportunities and Rights includes, among other activities, “promoting studies to quantify and highlight
the contribution of women’s unpaid work” (Law 10.1).
Executing agencies: National Statistics Institute (INE) and Sociology Department of the Faculty of Social
Sciences of the Universidad de la República
Associated agencies: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas of Spain (CSIC), National Women’s
Institute (INMUJERES)
Financing agencies: INE, Comunidad de Madrid and UNIFEM
In Uruguay, the Continuous Household Survey includes a time use module with a set of questions
about activities performed in the previous week, with national coverage. The forerunner (2003) was an
independent survey for Montevideo and the metropolitan area, applied by the Sociology Department of the
Faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad de la República.

40

 Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE), Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (FCS), Uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado en el Uruguay.
Módulo de la Encuesta Continua de Hogares, Septiembre, 2007”, Uruguay, 2008. (Report).

30

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

The survey’s objectives are to quantify and highlight paid and unpaid work, emphasizing the latter’s
contribution to social well-being, in order to provide useful input in the form of indicators for the design
of gender equality policies. This emphasis on the production of indicators is not always explicit in the
objectives of the surveys.
The strengths of this survey lie, in part, in the partnerships generated between the official statistics
agency, gender specialist in the academic world, INMUJERES and international cooperation agencies.
The National Plan on Equality of Rights and Opportunities provides a solid legal foundation
that recognizes the importance of statistics of this kind for appreciating the importance of unpaid work,
performed primarily by women.
The information presented on the objectives of time-use surveys in Latin America and the
Caribbean reveals notable differences in the concepts of unpaid work. There is one group of countries
that mention the concepts of paid and unpaid work in the description of objectives: this group embraces
the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, the
Plurinational State of Bolivia and Uruguay. In another group of countries, only unpaid work is mentioned
in the objectives. This group comprises Argentina, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and Peru. Guatemala
and Brazil, for their part, refer to domestic work in the objectives of the latest measurements, and only
in El Salvador, Peru and Chile is there any reference to the overall workload (i.e. the sum of paid and
unpaid work).
In the description of objectives, some countries have opted to break down the notion of unpaid work
into various categories (domestic work, community work, care-giving, personal care etc.). Activities of this
kind are identified in the specific objectives for Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala and Uruguay.
Another aspect of interest in analysing the objectives of time-use measurements is the reference (or
not) to satellite accounts and the economic value of unpaid work. Relatively few countries mention the
importance of time-use surveys for generating satellite accounts. Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama and
the Plurinational State of Bolivia include in their survey objectives the creation of satellite accounts and the
importance of placing an economic value on unpaid work. Generally, these countries have only recently
conducted time-use measurements, or are still in the process. Satellite accounts have been gaining in
visibility and importance for some time now. Consequently, current measurements make greater reference
to satellite accounts than did previous ones.
Lastly, some countries refer to the utility of time-use measurements as inputs to public policies.
Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and Uruguay explicitly state the importance of the
information provided by the time-use surveys for the formulation and design of gender policies as well as
their social policies. It can be expected that the results of the time-use surveys will have an impact on the
formulation and implementation of national policies in the region for reducing the gender gaps inherent in
the unequal distribution of time use between men and women.

2.

The debate over information-gathering strategies:
independent surveys versus modules in household or
employment surveys

Time-use measurements are frequently performed by including a module in household or employment
surveys. The module will have its own, specific instruments and procedures but it will be handled in an
integrated manner and applied to the same sample as the multi-use household survey. Household surveys
have greater flexibility for incorporating modules of this kind, they are a convenient way to address multiple
dimensions, and the level of detail can be adjusted to the objectives of the particular study. Taking the
household as the unit results in sociodemographic data and family relationships that can be easily related
to the use of time in unpaid work.

31

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

El Salvador (2011), Guatemala (2011), Honduras (2011), Nicaragua (1998) and Uruguay (2007)
have administered time-use modules incorporated for the most part in continuous, multipurpose national
household surveys or national surveys of living conditions, and in the specific case of the Dominican
Republic in the national demographics and health survey. As will be seen below, within the modular
strategy there are differences in objectives, activities lists with different levels of disaggregation, and
activity diaries for the previous day (not self-administered) based on a previously defined list of activities.
The advantage of this kind of measurement, where the module is applied simultaneously with
the main survey, is that the sampling and fieldwork costs are lower than for independent surveys.
It also produces more data per household, and these data can be analysed in conjunction with other
sociodemographic and socioeconomic information.
The limitations have to do with the duration of the measurement and the complexity of the fieldwork
inherent in handling the greater volume of data. The survey respondent may feel overwhelmed by the
sheer number of questions. There is a greater need for compatibility between the topics surveyed, periods
of time, and codification. Lastly, the time-use dimension may be lost from sight within the host of issues
addressed in the survey.
In Costa Rica (2011), specific questions on time use were included in the National Household
Survey, and this was also done in the Demographics and Health Survey in the Dominican Republic.
Independent surveys have the advantage of measuring information on a specific topic – the use of
time – and they can therefore produce greater and more detailed information than do multiple purpose
surveys. As well, with an independent survey the sample, the processing of the data and their quality can
be more clearly focused on the specific measurement of time use. From the viewpoint of the respondent,
this reduces the possibility of “survey fatigue”, as there are fewer questions to answer. Lastly, independent
surveys on a specific issue acquire greater visibility than do multiple purpose surveys with a time use
module included or attached.
The countries that have administered independent time-use surveys are Argentina (2010), the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (2011), Brazil (2009), Chile (2009), Colombia (2012), Cuba (2001),
Ecuador (2012), Mexico (2009), the Plurinational State of Bolivia (2010/11), Peru (2010), Panama (2011),
Costa Rica (2011) and Uruguay (2003). Independent surveys for measuring time use have advantages over
modules in terms of statistical strength and resource savings.
The limitations of independent surveys relate essentially to their cost of implementation, which may
reduce their periodicity. They place greater demands on national statistics offices in terms of management
and data processing, and the information collected does not always correspond to the context, the
sociodemographic profile, the occupational and the family situation of the persons surveyed.
TABLE 1
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: SURVEY STRATEGY USED IN THE LATEST ROUND
OF TIME USE MEASUREMENT

Module in the household or employment survey

El Salvador Multiple Purpose Household Survey
Guatemala: National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI)
Honduras: Permanent Multipurpose Household Survey
Nicaragua: Survey of Household Living Standards
Uruguay: Continuous Household Survey

Questions

Costa Rica: National Household Survey
Dominican Republic: Demographics and Health Survey

Independent survey

Brazil, Bolivia (Plur. St. of), Chile, Colombia, Cuba,
Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela (Bol. Rep. of), Panama,
Costa Rica and Argentina

Source: prepared by the authors on the basis of country sources available on the web.

32

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

In short, the selection of the data-gathering strategy – module or independent survey – depends
to a large extent on political and technical factors related to available financing and the capacities of the
statistics agency to incorporate this survey into its work programme. The fact that the most recent surveys
have tended to be conducted independently could indicate that this field is acquiring higher priority, and
that there is greater technical capacity for implementing it.

3.

The debate over data-gathering instruments: time-use diaries
versus activities lists

The majority (12) of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean used a list of activities for measuring
time use; four countries classified their activities according to ICATUS, and three used CAUTAL. Five
countries did not use international classifications. Costa Rica based its design on Mexico’s experience.
Of the 18 countries examined, only six used activities diaries for measuring time use. Five countries
based their survey on the ICATUS experimental classification and one of them (the Plurinational State of
Bolivia) constructed its own classification system (CATBOL) based on CAUTAL. They would seem to be
a regional trend to use the activities diary in the latest time-use surveys.
TABLE 2
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN: INSTRUMENTS USED IN THE LAST ROUND
OF TIME-USE MEASUREMENT
Argentina (2010)

Diary; international classifications are not used

Bolivia (Plur. St. Of) (2010/2011)

Diary (10 minutes); CATBOL based on CAUTAL

Brazil (2009)

Diary (15 minutes); ICATUS

Chile (2009)

Diary (30 minutes); ICATUS

Colombia (2012)

List of activities; CAUTAL-ICATUS

Costa Rica (2011)

List of activities based on Mexican experience; CAUTAL

Cuba (2001)

Diary (10 minutes); ICATUS

Ecuador (2012)

List of activities; CAUTAL

El Salvador (2011)

List of activities; international classifications are not used

Guatemala (2006)

List of activities; international classifications are not used

Honduras (2009)

List of activities; international classifications are not used

Mexico (2009)

Listed activities; CMAUT-ICATUS

Nicaragua (1998)

List of activities; international classifications are not used

Panama (2011)

List of activities; international classifiers are not used

Peru (2010)

List of activities; ICATUS

Dominican Republic (2007)

List of activities; international classifiers are not used

Venezuela (Bol. Rep. Of) (2011)

Diary; ICATUS

Uruguay (2007)

List of activities; ICATUS

Source: prepared by the authors on the basis of country sources available on the web.

The time-use log or diary has been presented by ICATUS as the main survey instrument for
gathering data on time use. A 24-hour diary can be used, recording the time at which the activity is
performed over a 24-hour day; alternatively, a simplified version can be used, confined to recording the duration
of an activity over a specific period of time, which does not necessarily coincide with a 24-hour day.

33

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

The basic objective of the time diary is to allow respondents to report all the activities they have
performed over a specified period of time, and to record the time at which each activity began and ended.
There are two basic types of diary: the complete time diary, and the reduced or simplified diary.
Generally speaking, time-use surveys take the 24-hour day as the basic unit of measurement. This
provides a natural cycle of activities and is clearly understood by respondents. In addition, for recall
surveys it has the advantage that respondents are able to remember their activities during the previous
day with reasonable reliability.
According to the experimental proposal of ICATUS, the diary is the recommended instrument
for measuring time use, making it possible to record primary, secondary and simultaneous activities in
their specific context (the place in which the activity was performed, with whom, for whom, and why),
arranged schematically on a diary page.
In a similar vein, Eurostat recommends the use of diaries with 10 minute intervals for one day
of the week, and another for an atypical weekend day. As well, in order to evaluate the frequency
and regularity of the time dedicated to the activities recorded, Eurostat suggests that the fieldwork
should be performed over the course of a year in order to observe time use in the different seasons
and at specific times of the year. In other words, the fieldwork should be conducted over 12 months
in order to capture seasonal differences. It is a complicated matter to take up these recommendations
in the region, as they would place great demands on the human and financial resources of national
statistics offices.
Diary design may vary according to the measurement objectives and characteristics. The
diary may have open or fixed intervals. For recording purposes, activities may be codified (the
“light” or simplified version”) or recording may be open-ended, so that the respondent writes
down the activities according to his or her perception. The simplified diary, with no contextual
questions, produces results that reflect a valuation of time in the linear sense but not in the social
sense. In some cases (Brazil, 2010 and the Plurinational State of Bolivia, 2011), the diary is left
with the respondent, who is interviewed on the next day, with the administrator helping to fill in
the questionnaire. This approach can resolve problems of form (handwriting, language etc.) and of
content, with regard to the meaning intended.
It would be interesting to examine experience with use of electronic data recording systems,
in light of the problems that survey administrators encounter in digitizing information from the paper
format, a task that requires some specific training. Such an approach could also reduce the costs of
codifying and processing data from the diaries (Brazil, 2010; Plurinational State of Bolivia, 2011;
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 2011).
Following is a brief review of the main arguments found in the specialized literature as to the
advantages and limitations of activity diaries.
One advantage is that diaries can resolve the problem of simultaneous unpaid work activities.
Because they allow the recording of more than one activity for the same block of time within a day,
they can collect information on secondary and/or tertiary pursuits. The measurement of simultaneous
activities entails decisions as to how to collect, codify and analyse this information. Simultaneous
measurement poses a huge methodological challenge in identifying and ranking activities and in having
the respondent record times. The importance of capturing multiple activities is recognized, especially
because performing domestic chores and caring for dependents at the same time is a significant source
of stress for caregivers. However, there are few concrete methodological recommendations on how to
establish the relative weighting of activities and how to rank them in quantitative terms.
An example of the treatment of simultaneous activities can be found in a paper by Valeria Esquível
on the measure of child labour in the Buenos Aires time-use survey (2012, page 77), which emphasized
the recording of simultaneous activities. In that paper, she distinguishes between time spent on one
activity and time spent on simultaneous activities.

34

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

An important advantage of the activities diary is to make it possible to visualize the timing of
activities (Esquível, page 93) and to describe how persons organize their daily responsibilities for domestic
chores, care-giving and paid work. This is especially important for demonstrating the tensions that exist
between different types of tasks, for purposes of articulating family and work responsibilities.
With respect to the disadvantages of the self-administered diary, consideration must be given to the degree
of literacy of the sample population. In countries with illiterate population groups, interpreting the diary and
recording activities in intervals of time can be a real obstacle for the respondent, and can place the reliability
and quality of the data at risk. Brazil (2010) and the Plurinational State of Bolivia (2010/2011) addressed this
difficulty by using “assisted” time logs, in which the administrator helps the respondent to fill out the record.
Another aspect to bear in mind in using diaries is that the validity of the data depends to a great
extent on the proper categorization and rigorous codification of activities.
As an alternative to the diary, activity surveys may use a list as a means of combining data through a
personal or face-to-face interview. The information is typically collected in two phases. First, the respondent
is asked to indicate how often he or she performs a series of activities. Next, information is collected on
the time dedicated to each activity on one or several days of the week.
The activities list implies that the survey is pre-codified in blocks of activities that, depending on
the classification criterion used, will be ordered and designated in a specific way.
Creation of an activities list has the advantage that it can be designed in light of information needs in a
specific local context. International classification parameters can be established, in addition to incorporating
questions that will elicit information necessary and useful for the design of policy responses to countryspecific issues. A relevant list of activities, through selection of indicators and questions incorporated into a
module, can be enough to produce accurate information on time use in relation to topics of interest at the micro
and meso levels. In this respect, it is a useful instrument for articulating the measurement of time use through
indicators that will serve as inputs for policies relating to gender, care-giving, labour matters and others.
Maria Angeles Durán has compared data on caring for children in Spain, taking information from the
INE, which uses the activities diary, against data from the SCIC, which uses the activities list. Her comparison
shows that childcare time is recorded more accurately in the latter institution’s survey. She attributes this to
a set of factors: disparity in the manner of formulating the questions, the language used, the examples and
instructions given to respondents, and “even the logotypes and unconscious identification of the respondent
with what is of interest to the institutions sponsoring the survey.” She assigns an important role to the method
of data collection: “If we ask respondents to write down what they were doing every 10 minutes, we will miss
the woods for the trees. We are likely to get better results if we ask them how much time they spent on each
activity the day before, and then add up the answers” (Durán, Maria Angeles, 2007, p. 65).
More recently, Maria Angeles Durán and Jesus Rogero (2009, page 119) proposed a synthetic
indicator that they call the “unpaid activities density index”, which comprises two aspects. The “aggregate
index of unpaid work”, which is the sum of the estimated times devoted to each domestic activity, and the
“synthetic index of unpaid work”, which is the global individual estimate of time dedicated to activities of
this kind. The ratio between the two indicators gives the number of tasks performed simultaneously during
a given period. Those who perform more activities will show greater time density.
One of the weaknesses associated with a pre-coded activities list is that it may not cover the activities
that the respondent happens to be performing, or that the respondent does not understand the meaning of
some of the activities. Another risk has to do with the process of coding subsequent to the measurement, an
issue that can arise when coding either a diary or an activities list. As Monaco Orozco and Sarah Gammage
have warned (ECLAC, 2008),41 it is possible that the person doing the coding might introduce his or her
own bias in interpreting and defining the activities.
41

 ECLAC, Mónica Orozco and Sarah Gammage, El trabajo productivo no remunerado dentro del hogar: Guatemala y México http://
www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/0/34730/Serie_103.pdf, Mexico City, 2008.

35

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

The decision as to which data-gathering instrument to employ for measuring time use and what
happens once the strategy is selected will depend on a number of factors inherent in the objectives of the
survey and the technical, political and institutional teams involved in designing its methodology. Those
factors include the approach taken in the design, the need of each country for particular information, the
financial, operational and human resources of the executing agencies, and the interagency partnerships that
have been established. Our research has not revealed any clear tendency in this respect.
Lastly, as a strategy supplementary to the quantitative measurement of time use, Monica Orozco
and Sarah Gammage (ECLAC, 2008) stress the need to develop methodologies that combine qualitative
and quantitative elements. The inclusion of qualitative aspects, applied through focal groups and in-depth
interviews, can be useful for achieving a better understanding of the distribution of time use between men
and women, and it can enrich the interpretation of outcomes and identify differences between population
groups defined by class, ethnic or racial background, age, place of residence, type of household etc.

4.

Classifications and the principal activities reported

The activities classification for time-use surveys is evolving as research in this area advances.
Currently, the international benchmark is ICATUS, prepared and revised in 2003 by the United
Nations. It proposes a classification of time-use activities to help countries that produce statistics of this
kind to harmonize their data. It also seeks comparability with other classifications. A group of experts
recommended this initial classification for use both by developed and developing countries.
The ICATUS classification attempts to provide a better definition of economic and non-economic
activities, productive and non-productive activities, and unpaid work, by incorporating all forms of work.
It contains a list specifically designed for surveys using the activities diary. It proposes three criteria for
differentiating activities by type:
1.

Productive activities included within the production boundary of the System of National Accounts (SNA):42
•
•

Work for corporations, quasi-corporations, non-profit institutions and government.
Work for household unincorporated enterprises engaged in primary production activities; nonprimary production activities; construction activities; and provision of services for income

2.

Activities included within the general production boundary but not within the SNA production
boundary:
• Domestic services for own final use within household; unpaid care-giving services to household
members; unpaid volunteer services to the community and to other households.

3

Activities that are not considered production activities, i.e. personal activities:
• Learning.
• Socializing and community participation.
• Attending/visiting cultural, entertainment and sports events/venues.
• Engaging in hobbies, games and other pastime activities.
• Indoor and outdoor sports participation.
• Use of mass media.
• Personal care and maintenance.

ICATUS proposes an ordering of data collected on the basis of a diary or time log covering activities
performed during 24 hours. It presents a structure with 15 major divisions, 54 divisions, 92 groups,
200 classes, and 363 subclasses.
42

 United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division. Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring
Tape and Unpaid Work, New York, 2005.

36

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

It was with a view to providing an activities classification adapted to the specific circumstances
of the region that CAUTAL was prepared. The proposal was presented in October 2009 at the 10th
International Meeting of Gender Statisticians of the Statistics Conference of the Americas, held in
Aguascalientes, Mexico. It was prepared by Maria Eugenia Gomez Luna and experts of INEGI, with the
cooperation of INMUJERES of Mexico, UNIFEM and ECLAC.
The structure of CAUTAL is more synthetic than that of ICATUS. It contains 3 principal categories,
5 divisions, 24 groups, 94 classes and 33 subclasses. The activities selected are equivalent to the four-digit
level of ICATUS (Maria Eugenia Gómez Luna, 2009).
CAUTAL is a tool for measuring time use on the basis of questionnaires that allow for harmonization
of surveys at the regional level by producing standardized, comprehensive and internationally comparable
indicators and information on paid and unpaid work. It is aligned and consistent with the System of
National Accounts. It is based on and comparable with ICATUS as well as other international benchmarks.
CAUTAL classifies peoples activities over a 24-hour period, in contrast to ICATUS, for which the
reference period is one week.
Like ICATUS, it uses three criteria for differentiating activities, according to the SNA boundaries:43
1.

Productive activities within the SNA boundary, performed through paid work:
• Market production: agricultural, manufactured, trade, private-sector services.
• Production for own use: agricultural goods for self consumption, collection of products in the
wild, collection of firewood, hauling water, construction, rental services of owner-occupied
dwellings, paid domestic work.
• Other non-market production: services of public administrations and not-for-profit institutions.

2.

Productive activities outside the SNA boundary, performed through paid work:
• Unpaid services within household: household chores, caring for persons, caring for children
under 15 years.
• Caring for household members over 60 years.
• Unpaid services for other households: actions to obtain public services.
• Unpaid productive work in not-for-profit institutions: unpaid volunteer work in healthcare.

3.

Non-productive or personal activities:
• Study/learning.
• Socializing (family, friends).
• Attending cultural, entertainment and sports events.
• Hobbies, games and other pastimes.
• Sports and physical exercise.
• Use of communications media.
• Personal care.
• Eating.
• Sleeping.

Of the 18 countries studied, 7 classified activities in the latest measurements on the basis of the
experimental ICATUS outline: Brazil, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Peru and
Uruguay. Mexico used a combination of ICATUS and the Mexican Classification of Time Use [CMAUT],
while Colombia combined ICATUS with CAUTAL. Costa Rica used CAUTAL and CMAUT. The Plurinational
State of Bolivia used its own classification system (CATBOL) based on CAUTAL. The other countries did not
use the ICATUS or CAUTAL classifications: Ecuador used the CAUTAL classifier for its surveys in 2007,
2010 and 2012.
43

 INEGI, María Eugenia Gómez Luna, Directrices y referentes metodológicos para armonizar las encuestas sobre uso del tiempo.
Propuesta para discusión. Mexico City, 30 June 2010.

37

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

The most recent time-use measurements in Latin America and the Caribbean have adhered more
closely to ICATUS than to CAUTAL. While seven countries use ICATUS as the classifier, there are
still some countries that classify activities in accordance with their own criteria, and this constitutes an
obstacle to harmonizing time-use statistics and outcomes. Only in the most recent studies have there
been incipient attempts to adapt to CAUTAL, indicating the beginning of a process towards greater
recognition of this instrument.
In their classification of activities the countries examined differ with respect to many variables,
including the international classification used, the measurement modalities, the instruments selected,
the specific and local circumstances of each country, and the age cut-off points for target populations.
All the activities surveyed are presented in Annex 2, drawing on information for each measurement
available on the web.
Beyond those countries that have incorporated only a small number of questions on time use in
their surveys (El Salvador, Honduras and the Dominican Republic) or that make no information available
on the web (Panama), there is a sizable group of countries that have surveyed activities relating to:
•

Paid/remunerated work/market work/productive work/employment (depending on
the term used by each country): principal work, secondary work, wages and salaries,
commuting times, looking for work, etc. In a few cases, paid domestic work in private
households is measured.

•

Unpaid work/domestic work: preparation of meals, cleaning, clothes upkeep, washing and
ironing, household management, shopping and travel, household maintenance; hauling
firewood or water, household administration, purchase of food, beverages, cleaning products,
purchasing clothes for oneself or another member of the family, animal breeding, collection
of flora and fauna (but not as an economic activity), caring for pets, fetching water, gathering
firewood, fruits, exclusively for the household, growing a crop, housing construction, etc. Few
countries include travel and commuting time among their activities groups. Some countries
include under this heading care for dependent persons, restricting the number of questions to
the detriment of a better measurement of care responsibilities within the household.

•

Caring for household members: children, the elderly and the sick. Dependent populations
vary by country. There is a greater tendency to collect information on care for children under
15 years and persons over 60 years, with less information on the sick and disabled, a factor
that weakens the appreciation of the overall distribution of care responsibilities for dependent
persons. Rarely are care responsibilities broken down into specific activities: those countries
that do so identify them as physical care for dependent persons, feeding, hygiene, emotional
care (less frequent), health, education, transportation, clothing, among others. Most countries
do not collect information on care for adolescents, as the categories used are restricted to
persons under 15 years and adults or elderly persons.

•

Unpaid activities for other households, for the community, and volunteer work: most countries
include this topic in their measurements. Countries with nationwide surveys emphasize rural
and agricultural work in this dimension. The group of countries that construct their own
classifications include this dimension only infrequently. There is little detail to the breakdown
of activities in this category. There is a minority group of countries that do not include this
dimension in their measurements.

•

Education/learning/study: attendance at classes, time dedicated to study, to homework, to
academic activities or any school activity, attendance at seminars, travel, etc. Although
there are more countries that measure education activities, there is a sizable group of
countries that do not include it, or at least do not make information available on the web.
In time-use measurements that incorporate a module into multipurpose surveys, we find
greater information on education in other sections of the survey, and this can be used to
enrich the analysis.

38

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

•

Free time/recreation/socializing: social activities and get-togethers with family or friends;
telephone or Internet chats; attendance at cultural or sporting events, performances, religious
activities, entertainment, etc. The great majority of countries collect information on these
activities under the heading of free time and recreation. They do not always include sports as an
area for measurement, and activities vary by country and by the ability to incorporate questions
into their measurement modalities. Only a few countries do not survey this category.

•

Use of communications media: reading books and newspapers, watching TV and videos,
listening to the radio, surfing the Internet, going to the library, using ICTs, etc. This category is
surveyed in only a minority of the countries studied. The reasons may have to do with limiting
the number of questions in order not to overload the survey, or questions may be included
elsewhere in multipurpose surveys to cover this topic in particular.

•

Personal care: rest and recreation, reading, watching television, drinking, conversing, eating,
washing, grooming, praying, meditating, going to medical appointments or recovering from
some illness, planning, among others. This dimension is surveyed by more than half of the
countries studied, while the others do not include this category in their measurements.

The system of categories and dimensions sketched above respects the classifications of CAUTAL
and ICATUS. Most countries have included it in their latest time-use measurements. However, the
breakdown of activities by category depends on the instrument used (diary or activities list). There are
differences among countries: some incorporate contextual variables in their measurements and some
do not record simultaneous tasks and travel time. These three aspects are essential, in a methodological,
quantitative and interpretative sense, for achieving more comprehensive results from time statistics.

D. The institutional framework
Work on time-use surveys has received considerable impetus from a series of meetings and international
gatherings over the past decade. The main international agencies sponsoring these events have been
UN-Women, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography of Mexico (INEGI), the National Women’s
Institute of Mexico (INMUJERES), and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC), through the Women and Development Unit (now the Gender Affairs Division) and the Statistics
Division, with its subsidiary body, the Statistics Conference of the Americas. The Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO) has also played an important role in recent years.
These international meetings have allowed for discussion on theoretical, technical, methodological
and statistical aspects involved in measuring paid and unpaid work, as well as the exchange of experience
among statistical offices of the region in the measurement of time use. They have served to focus attention
on surveys of this kind and have helped to strengthen efforts within the region to collect information from
a gender viewpoint, with the resulting impact on policy formulation.
Significant events concerning time-use statistics include the following:
The ten international meetings held in Mexico between 2003 and 2012, hosted by INEGI, served in
part to construct the work programme of the Statistics Conference of the Americas (beginning in 2006),
with support from the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
(UN-Women), ECLAC, and INMUJERES:44
•
•

44

2003. First international meeting of experts on time-use surveys.
2004. Second international meeting of experts on time use, measurement and evaluation surveys.

 From the presentation “Una década de reuniones internacionales de expertas y expertos en encuestas de uso del tiempo y trabajo no
remunerado”. Prepared by Lucía Scuro of ECLAC and María Paz de UN-Women for the tenth international meeting of experts on
surveys on time use and unpaid work. “La economía del cuidado y el trabajo no remunerado en el centro de las políticas públicas y las
evidencias empíricas para sustentarlas”, Mexico City, 2012.

39

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

•

2005. Third international meeting of experts on time-use surveys.

•

2006. Fourth international meeting of experts on time-use surveys, treatment of information
in time-use surveys.

•

2007. Fifth international meeting of experts on time-use surveys.

•

2008. Sixth international meeting of experts on time-use surveys.

•

2009. Seventh international meeting of experts on time-use surveys.

•

2010. Eighth international meeting, Public policies, time use and the care economy: the
importance of national statistics.

•

2011. Ninth international meeting, Public policies, time use and the care economy: the
importance of national statistics.

•

2012. Tenth international meeting of experts on time-use and unpaid work surveys, the
care economy and unpaid work at the centre of public policies, and empirical evidence for
supporting them.

The regional meeting on time-use surveys, their design and application, held in Chile in November
2005 and sponsored by the Women and Development Unit and the Statistics and Economic Forecasts
Division of ECLAC, PAHO and UNIFEM.
The subregional technical meeting on time-use and unpaid work surveys, held in Montevideo on
28 and 29 November 2006. The meeting assembled specialists in this area from Latin America and Spain.
It was organized by the Universidad de la República, UNDP and UNIFEM and was sponsored by INE,
UNFPA and INMUJERES, with the support of the Advisory Committee on Employment and Women of
the Community of Madrid.
The fourth meeting of the Statistics Conference of the Americas, held in Chile in July 2007 and
organized by ECLAC and the SCA created the Working Group on Gender Statistics,45 with Mexico serving
as the coordinating country and the ECLAC Gender Affairs Division as the secretariat.
The technical meeting to develop the time-use activities classifier or for Latin America and the
Caribbean, CAUTAL, held in Mexico in August 2009 and organized by UNIFEM, the ECLAC Gender
Affairs Division and INEGI of Mexico.
The Fifth Meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, held in Colombia in August 2009
and organized by ECLAC and SCA, with participation by the Working Group on Gender Statistics.
The “seminar-workshop on unpaid work in the measurement of economic activity and well-being.
Time-use surveys as input for calculating the satellite account for unpaid household work”, held in Lima
in October 2012, organized by ECLAC (Statistics Division and Gender Affairs Division), the Ministry for
Women and Vulnerable Populations and the National Statistics Institute.
In addition to these meetings and conferences, special importance attaches to the meetings of the
Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC. By adopting specific
agreements, the Executive Committee provides guidance and recommendations to the Conference
and takes decisions relating to gender statistics and time use. At the seventh meeting of the Executive
Committee (Colombia, 2007) ,the programme of the Working Group on Gender Statistics was
approved, and was further strengthened at subsequent meetings: eighth meeting (Dominican Republic,
2008), ninth meeting (Chile, 2010), tenth meeting (Cuba, 2011) and eleventh meeting (Ecuador, 2012).

45

 Membership of the group includes the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Uruguay, as well as the National
Women’s Institute (INMUJERES) and the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) of Mexico, and UNIFEM.

40

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

These events have helped to improve statistics on paid and unpaid work of households and
have provided opportunities for information sharing between statistics offices, programmes for the
advancement of women, the specialized academic world and international cooperation agencies. They
have disseminated experience with measuring time use in countries of the region and have sparked
discussion on the methodologies, scopes and challenges involved, thereby facilitating cooperation
and learning among participants. The results of these meetings have had an impact on the design and
implementation of the latest measurements. Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador and Uruguay, among other
countries, have participated regularly and actively in these international events.
Annex 3 provides information on executing agencies, funding providers and partners involved
in implementing the latest time-use measurements in Latin America and the Caribbean. A group of
countries, comprising Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay,
, offer interesting experience in coordinating work and building partnerships among international
agencies, national statistics offices, the academic world and programmes for the advancement of women.
The remaining countries do not have an interagency “triad” of this kind, but they have arrangements
for bilateral support between statistics offices and cooperation agencies, or between national statistics
offices and academic bodies. In the case of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, leadership lies with
the statistics office and the central bank.

E. Production of indicators for the use of time in unpaid work
The construction of time-use indicators in each country studied varies according to the activities
surveyed (quantity, dimensions, breakdown, simultaneity, contextual co-variables), the type of
instrument used, the age cut-off line for the target population, the time frame of reference, and
geographical coverage.
Generally speaking, the results of the indicators translate into average hours during the day
or week, by sex, dedicated to a given activity (for example, average weekly or daily hours dedicated
to caring for children of a given age, by sex), participation rates in unpaid work, by sex, and the
corresponding intersections with other variables that can be established using the data collected by
the surveys: socioeconomic level, education level, number of dependent children in the home, type of
household, age, ethnic and racial origin, place of residence, etc.
The United Nations and ECLAC are encouraging the construction of high-impact indicators that
allow for comparability: the proposals of ICATUS and most recently CAUTAL are a reflection of this.
Currently, the indicator that has gained the greatest visibility, and one that has become an important
policy tool, is the overall workload or total working time. This indicator is the sum of paid and unpaid
working time for men and women.
Annex 5 shows total paid and unpaid working time according to the latest measurements in
Latin America and the Caribbean, and average hours over the reference period. This table is based on
indicators calculated by ECLAC46 for the purpose of mapping total working time in the region; they
do not, however, allow for comparability, as the surveys are heterogeneous and not harmonized. The
reference time frames vary between one week and the previous day, the survey years and the age cut-offs
differ, as do the forms of measuring paid work and the geographic areas covered.
Although the figures obtained are not comparable across countries, they do in all cases reveal
gender gaps and unequal time use between women and men, reproducing similar patterns with respect
to the feminization of unpaid work, thereby demonstrating the magnitude and persistence of gender
inequalities for women in the use of time in the region.

46

 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Gender Affairs Division, Tiempo total de trabajo (remunerado
y no remunerado) Recopilación experiencias encuestas Uso del tiempo en los países, Chile, 2010.

41

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Bearing in mind the great volume of information generated by the surveys, which has yet to be
exploited for comparative purposes, we recommend efforts to define a set of indicators such as those
already prepared in some countries, which have proven useful tools for policy formulation.
By way of example, we point to the following:
Indicator of work distribution in households. Percentage of total time dedicated by males to domestic
chores and family care, minus the percentage of total time dedicated by women to domestic chores and
family care. This will provide a picture of the sexual division of labour in households.
Indicator of differences in time use in the various activities that comprise domestic work. Average
hours per week (or per day) dedicated to unpaid domestic work in households, disaggregated according to
the availability of domestic appliances and the existence of paid domestic help.
Indicator of gender differences in time use for the different activities involved in caring for children.
Average hours per week (or per day) dedicated to child care, broken down by the number and ages of children.
Indicator of gender differences in time use for unpaid work according to the presence of elderly
persons in the household. Average hours per week (or per day) dedicated to domestic activities and care,
by age and sex of elderly persons in the household .
Indicator of double presence or double working day. Average hours per week (or per day) dedicated to
unpaid work in two-parent households, by number of children and length of working day of both parents.
Indicator of the relationship between the length of the working day and family responsibilities.
Reasons expressed for working short days.
These basic indicators can be crossed with other variables such as income quintiles, type of
household, place of residence, age bracket, ethnic and racial background, number of children, etc.
The time-use indicators are a valid instrument for identifying gender gaps in the distribution of time
use between men and women; they indicate how unpaid and paid work are reconciled and reflect the time
dedicated to care activities, which is currently a matter of key importance for government policies in the
region. In this respect, the time-use indicators must be adjusted to local realities –urban and rural– if they
are to be used as input for the design and formulation of public policies.
The following section presents an ordering of the principle indicators of time dedicated to unpaid work,
resulting from official measurement reports for Latin America and the Caribbean examined in this study:
Participation rate in unpaid work:
Participation rate in unpaid work by sex.
Participation rate in the components of unpaid work by sex.
Participation rates and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
age bracket.
Participation rates and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
household structure.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
family relationship.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
the family life cycle.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
marital status.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
employment status.

42

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
length of the working day.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
education level.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
the quintile of per capita household income.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to unpaid work, by sex, according to
geographical area.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to domestic work, by sex, according to
age bracket.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to domestic work, by sex, depending on
whether domestic help is available.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to domestic work, by sex, by
domestic activity.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to caring for children, by sex, according to
household structure.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to caring for children, by sex, according to
presence of juveniles in the household’s family life.
Participation rate and average weekly or daily time dedicated to caring for children, by sex, according
to activity.
Percentage distribution of participation by women and men in caring for children.
Percentage of persons caring for dependents or the sick, by age bracket.
Access to social programmes for children, persons with disabilities, and older persons.
Time dedicated to unpaid work:
Average weekly or daily time in hours dedicated to unpaid work, by sex
Average weekly or daily hours dedicated to unpaid work, by sex and household income quintile.
Average weekly or daily hours dedicated to unpaid work, by sex and poverty status.
Average weekly or daily hours dedicated to child care, according to weekly or daily time dedicated to
unpaid work, by sex.
Average hours dedicated to caring for persons with disability, by age group and sex.
Total working time:
Percentage distribution of overall workload of the population of X years and over.
Percentage distribution of overall workload by sex.
Percentage distribution of overall workload by ethnic origin
Time dedicated to travel/commuting:
Time dedicated to travel between place of residence and place of paid work.
Time dedicated to travel between place of residence and local services (health centres, schools etc.).
Use of various means of transport by women and men, by purpose of travel.

43

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

F. Availability of information
Of the 18 countries studied, Argentina, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru,
the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Uruguay provide full information on the web with respect to objectives,
activities, manuals and forms, classifications, reports, presentations, participating agencies, etc. Mexico
provides the greatest information, followed by Uruguay, Peru and Argentina. Statistical, methodological and
outcome data and institutional and academic reports are readily available for this group of countries.
Countries for which information is “semi-complete” are the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,
Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. The main gaps in their information relate to reports on
methodology, results and analysis of time use measurement experience in these countries.
At the other extreme are countries for which information on time use measurement is incomplete in
many key dimensions. The Dominican Republic (2007) provides no information in terms of measurement
objectives, activities conducted, methodological reports and outcomes. Data from the latest measurements
are of limited accessibility and do not provide a clear picture of progress with these measurements.
Lastly, no information was available for Colombia, as the latest measurement is still under way and
no results have yet been reported.
TABLE 3
Latin America and the Caribbean: Internet availability of information on the latest
time use measurement experience
Complete information

Argentina, Bolivia (Plur. St. of), Chile, Cuba, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru and Uruguay

Semi-complete information

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (reports missing), Brazil
(reports missing), Costa Rica (reports missing), El Salvador
(reports missing) and Panama (activities and reports)

Incomplete information

Dominican Republic (objectives missing)

Source: prepared by the authors on the basis of country sources available on the web.

The availability and accessibility of information and data on time-use measurement experiments
conducted in countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are important aspects for identifying the scope
of measurements, the particular methodological features and the outcome of each initiative. Countries
that produce statistical information on time-use measurements for their national statistics institutes and
post them clearly and visibly on the web enable better use and dissemination of statistics on time use
and unpaid work. Countries that fall within the “complete information” group capitalize on the results
and the process of implementing measurements of this kind to prepare substantive reports by statistics
institutes, government programmes for women’s advancement, and the academic world, with support from
international cooperation (e.g. ECLAC, UN-Women, UNFPA).
Mexico and Uruguay are examples of countries where the results of recent time-use measurements
have been compiled and appropriated by the academic world and women’s advancement programmes. The
availability of information and of statistical, institutional and academic reports on time use measurement in
countries of the first group makes it possible to appreciate the hierarchy and importance that these instruments
have in the country for lending greater visibility to all forms of work performed by men and women, within
and outside the home, whether paid or not. These are indicators of statistical management capacity and of
the interagency commitment and synergy generated for promoting and making use of the resulting inputs.
On the other hand, the countries that fall within the “semi-complete” and “incomplete” information
groups need to overcome obstacles to systematizing and highlighting their results in order to achieve a
higher priority for these studies within national statistics systems.

44

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

G. Household satellite accounts: a work in progress
The specialized literature on this topic traces the first efforts to construct a satellite account for the
domestic production of households to a study by Margaret Reid, published in 1934. As we have seen,
the importance of implementing satellite accounts has gained increasing international recognition since
the Beijing Platform (1995), through agreements and technical meetings of the international and regional
levels. By way of example, in 2003 the Statistics Office of the European Union (Eurostat) proposed a
methodology for assigning a value to unpaid work and for constructing satellite accounts for household
production and consumption.
Eurostat has published recommendations that include flexible alternatives, leaving the choice to
each country in accordance with its objectives and its information possibilities.
The climate today is propitious for promoting satellite accounts for unpaid work, thanks in part to
the broad dissemination of the Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance
and Social Progress (Stiglitz. J, Sen A., Fitoussi J., 2009) among national accounting specialists, and their
increasing interest in satellite accounts.
This is a new field of analysis in the region, discussion of which has been sparked by the Mexican
proposal. Mexico’s INEGI produced a satellite account for unpaid work in households (CSTNRHM)
for the period 2006-2010. The purpose of the account was to calculate the unpaid productive activities
performed by households for the benefit of their members, with a view to dimensioning their contribution
to family development in terms of the entire national economy.47 The results were presented in conjunction
with the products of the National Accounts System of Mexico.
In Uruguay,48 an estimate of household production and consumption of services was produced,
based on the Time Use Module (2007) and on data for household consumption of goods and services from
the National Survey of household income and expenditure (ENIGH) conducted by the National Statistics
Institute in the months of November and December 2005, and January-October 2006. The methodology
used was based on Eurostat (2003).
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is among the countries that will shortly be producing a
household satellite account (HSA). The project is being driven by the Venezuelan National Statistics
Institute, the central bank, and the Ministry of the Popular Power for Planning and Development. The
CSH will measure household production, income and consumption, the distribution of work within
households, and intergenerational dynamics. The data from the 2012 time-use survey will be essential
for the calculations to be included in the satellite account. The results of the HSA are expected to
appear in the course of 2013. Beyond the time-use survey, the sources for the HSA will be the national
sample-based survey of households and the national survey of family budgets . Three forms will be
used to assess household production: the replacement cost of an hour of unpaid work at the wage of a
domestic worker; the replacement cost at the wage of a specialized worker in similar occupation, and
the opportunity cost.
Ecuador has put together an interagency team comprising the Commission for Transition to
the Council on Women and Gender Equality, the INEC and the Central Bank of Ecuador to explore
the development of a household satellite account that would include unpaid work, drawing on the
results of the 2007 time-use survey. It has been using the System of National Accounts of Ecuador
for the year 2008 as the theoretical and methodological base, and the 2007 Time-Use Survey as the
statistical base.49
 http://www.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/biblioteca/detalleSCNM.aspx?c=28025upc=0s=esttg=336f=2pf=Cue.
 Soledad Salvador, Vivianne Ventura Dias, Maira Colacce, Martina Querejeta, La producción y el consumo de los servicios en el hogar:
el caso de Uruguay, Uruguay, 2010.
49
 INEC, presentation on Procesamiento y resultados de la Cuenta Satélite de los Hogares con inserción del Trabajo No Remunerado
en XIII Encuentro Internacional de Estadísticas de Género: Bases empíricas para políticas públicas orientadas al empoderamiento
económico de las mujeres, Aguascalientes, Mexico 8, 9 and 10 October 2012.
47
48

45

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Guatemala is moving forward with the valuation of unpaid work, through an interagency team
comprising SEPREM, INE and the Central Bank of Guatemala, with technical support from ECLAC.
In El Salvador, pursuant to the work plan under the framework agreement on interagency
cooperation signed in August 2012 between the Salvadoran Institute for Women’s Development
(ISDEMU), the Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador (BCR) and the Ministry of Economy through the
General Directorate of Statistics and Census (DIGESTYC) and ECLAC, a satellite account on unpaid
work is being prepared with technical assistance from ECLAC.
In 2010, Colombia approved Law 1413 which calls for including the care economy in the System
of National Accounts. Accordingly, the DANE, as the national statistics office and producer of the national
accounts, is working to place a value on unpaid work and to develop a production account for such work.
Lastly, in Peru, the Ministry for Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP), in conjunction with
the INEI, is giving priority to including unpaid work in the national accounts and to determining the
periodicity of time-use surveys, pursuant to Law 27,900. An example of this joint work and of the need to
establish a satellite account on unpaid work is the workshop-seminar on “unpaid work in the measurement
of economic activity and well-being: time-use surveys as input for calculating the satellite account on
unpaid work in households”, which was held in October 2012. That seminar was sponsored by the INEI,
ECLAC and PAHO, for the purpose of sharing experience and discussing the process of calculating the
satellite account for unpaid work, which uses data from the time-use surveys conducted in countries of
the region, as well as moving forward on technical and methodological aspects.
The process of assigning a value to unpaid work and building satellite accounts is a field open to
much conceptual and methodological debate as to what should be considered as domestic production,
how the work time required to obtain it should be measured, and how it should be valued (Carrasco and
Serrano, 2005, page 13).
As time-use surveys are an essential input for these accounts, considerable emphasis is being placed
on addressing the underestimation of care-giving time, and in particular “standby time”, which needs to
be captured by the surveys (see Durán, 2006, page 65).
As there are currently no unified standards, this is an issue that will require further research and
debate in specialized forums of the countries that have prepared accounts of this kind. The goal would be
to harmonize the satellite accounts for domestic production of households and to develop some common
guidelines to facilitate international comparison.

46

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

III. Analysis of recent
 national experience
This chapter analyses in-depth a number of dimensions of time-use
measurements undertaken in Ecuador (2012), Guatemala (2011), Mexico
(2009), Peru (2010) and Uruguay (2007). These countries were selected as
representing positive experience in the use of results by academic users, civil
society and women’s advancement programmes, and because they meet the
criteria of presenting reports on the outcomes of measurement exercises,
nationwide scope, and diversity of modalities (independent surveys or
modules in broader surveys).
In order to obtain more information on time-use measurements in
these countries we sent out questionnaires to qualified sources in statistics
institutes, women’s advancement programmes, and the academic world,
with specific questions for each area of activity, designed to elicit their
perspectives and opinions on the dimensions presented below. This
consultation process yielded responses from 12 informants50 in the areas of
statistics, gender mechanisms and the academic world.
Methodological characteristics (modality, instrument and coverage):51
•
•

Ecuador: 2012. Independent survey. Activities list. National 
coverage.
Guatemala: 2011. Module. Activities list. National coverage.

 Responses were received from the following qualified informants: Ecuador: Alba Pérez (Comisión de Transición hacia el Consejo de
las Mujeres y la Igualdad de Género) and Soledad Carvajal (Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos). Guatemala: Mario Anzueto
(Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas), Bertha Falla (Secretaría Presidencial de la Mujer) and Anitzel Merino (Consultora). Mexico: Brígida
García (Colegio de México), María Eugenia Gómez Luna (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía) and María Eugenia Medina
(Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres). Peru: Mayela Freyre (Ministerio de la Mujer y Poblaciones Vulnerables). Uruguay: Carlos Calvo
(Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas), Valentina Perrotta (Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres) and Soledad Salvador (Academia).
51
 More detailed information is provided in the annexes.
50

47

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

•
•
•

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Peru: 2010. Independent survey. Activities list. National coverage.
Mexico: 2009. Independent survey. Activities list. National coverage.
Uruguay: 2007. Module. Activities list. National coverage.

A. Principal promoters and users of time-use surveys
In Ecuador, the 2012 time-use survey was undertaken pursuant to the constitutional mandate, the
Plan Nacional del Buen Vivir and the Ley Orgánica de la Economía Popular y Solidaria y del Sector
Financiero Popular y Solidario. This first, independent survey was conducted by INEC and the
Commission for Transition to the Council on Women and Gender Equality, with technical assistance
from ECLAC.
In Guatemala, for the measurement of time use through the ENCOVI household survey, the
following players were identified as promoters of time-use surveys: the National Statistics Institute,
the Presidential Office for Women, the Universidad Rafael Landívar, the IDB, the World Bank
and ECLAC.
In Peru, the 2010 time-use survey, the first of its kind, was a coordinated effort that involved a
joint professional team formed by the National Statistics Institute (INEI) and the Ministry for Women
and Development. The Movimiento “Manuela Ramos”, an NGO, facilitated interagency dialogue. The
Gender Affairs Division of ECLAC, UNFPA and UN-Women reportedly provided significant support
for activities relating to policy, dissemination and awareness raising.
In Mexico, the Gender Equity Committee of the Chamber of Deputies played an important role
in securing the budgetary appropriation for the 2009 time-use survey, which was performed jointly by
INEGI and INMUJERES through an interagency agreement.
In Uruguay, the last time use measurement (2007) involved a number of players. Our consultations
revealed that it was promoted primarily by the Gender Area of the Sociology Department of the Faculty
of Social Sciences of the University of the Republic, together with the National Statistics Institute, which
had conducted the first time-use survey in Uruguay, covering Metropolitan Montevideo, in 2003. These
two institutions then contributed heavily to the design, implementation and analysis of the module on
time use and unpaid work applied in 2007.
The National Women’s Institute, the High Council for Scientific Research of Spain, the
Community of Madrid and UN-Women in Uruguay provided technical support in its implementation and
in the exploitation and dissemination of results and also facilitated exchanges with national institutions
and specialists from other countries.
In most countries, the machineries for the advancement of women and the national statistics
offices played a fundamental role in promoting the surveys. In Mexico, Peru and Uruguay international
cooperation agencies such as UN-Women, UNFPA and ECLAC made important contributions. Only
in the case of Peru was a civil society organization heavily involved. Uruguay appears to be the only
country where the academic world played a significant role, in coordination with other players, in
facilitating the decision of the national statistics office to carry out the time use measurement.
When it comes to the financing of the surveys, we note that in Ecuador the 2012 survey was
funded by INEC and the Sector Financiero Popular y Solidario. In Guatemala, the central government
and the Inter-American Development Bank provided the bulk of funding for the time-use survey, which
was carried out not independently but as a module within the ENCOVI.
In Mexico, the 2009 time-use survey was financed by UN-Women and by budgetary funds of the
federal government. INEGI was the executing agency. Peru obtained financing for the 2010 time-use survey
from INEI, UNFPA and UN-Women. Lastly, Uruguay’s 2007 measurement was financed essentially by
the INE with support from UN-Women.

48

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

In both Ecuador and Mexico a portion of the funding came from programmes for the advancement
of women. The national statistics offices were sources of financing in Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Mexico.
Among international cooperation agencies, UN-Women has been most active in providing direct financial
support, especially in Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.
Those persons in the national statistics offices who responded to our consultation identified
the women’s advancement mechanisms as the main users of the survey results. Academic institutions
(universities, research centres etc.) were also cited as users of the survey results, processing and
analysing microdata and making them available to researchers and postgraduate students. Ecuador
and Mexico have linked the time-use survey results indirectly with the generation of satellite accounts
in their national statistics offices. Only in Ecuador and Peru do NGOs appear as users of time-use
survey information.

B. Strategies and mechanisms for disseminating the results of

time-use surveys
There are various dissemination mechanisms in use, including publication at official web pages of national
statistics offices, publications at the websites of women’s advancement programmes, and seminars.
Ecuador has disseminated the results of the 2007 time-use survey (those from the 2012 survey
are still being processed) through the INEC webpage and in publications prepared jointly by INEC, the
Commission of Transition, UN-Women and AECID. The results have also been discussed at international
meetings of time use experts.
Guatemala represents the most recent time use measurement experience, and no consolidated
mechanisms have been identified for dissemination through the statistics agency. Specifically, the results
of the time use module in the 2011 ENCOVI were presented at the most recent meetings of specialists.
Our consultations with specialists from the women’s advancement programme stressed the importance
of the national report, “Unpaid Work in Guatemala”, prepared in 2009 by SEPREM and the Universidad
Landivar, using the results from the time use modules included in the National Living Conditions Survey
(ENCOVI) from 2000 and 2006.
Peruvian experts have given presentations of the principal results at national and international
events on time use, and those results have also been published at the websites of INEI and the Ministry
for Women and Development. The report prepared by the Ministry in 2011, “Gender Gaps in the Time-Use
Survey”, has been distributed to officials involved with gender equity policies. With the support of
international agencies such as UNFPA and UN-Women, newsletters and articles have been prepared and
disseminated nationwide.
In Mexico, the results of the 2009 time-use survey were disseminated primarily through
the INMUJERES webpage. The “Gender Notebooks” (Cuadernos de Trabajo sobre Género) site
has published research conducted in coordination with academic institutions such as the National
Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Centre for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE),
the Universidad Popular Autónoma de Puebla (UPAEP) and UN-Women.
Other products for disseminating the results of time-use surveys in Mexico can be found in
physical format at the Documentation Centre of UN-Women, and in electronic format through the
System of Gender Indicators (SIG), in publications on time use issues. Mexico has also conducted
awareness raising campaigns about time use, sponsored by the social communications area of
INMUJERES. Mexico is also a co-organizer and active participant in various meetings on gender
statistics and time use.
In Uruguay, we found many channels for disseminating the results of the 2007 time-use survey,
particularly through the INE webpage and INMUJERES. The academic world, and specifically the
Sociology Department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of the Republic, has used

49

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

the results in numerous articles and publications. INMUJERES has a gender information system
that publishes periodic reports such as the Gender Statistics or Information Notebooks. Publications
are disseminated and presented annually. They are available in both paper and digital format. The
presentations given in 2012 included spokespersons of the ministries of social development and of labour
and social security as well as the presidents of political parties represented in parliament.
We note that countries such as Uruguay and Mexico, which have statistics specialists in their
programmes for women’s advancement, produce much in the way of thematic publications will that
include information on time use and that are disseminated primarily at official web pages. These
countries work with the academic world to generate these documents. Mexico also has a mass
communication strategy on time use (something not found in other countries), as well as specific
awareness raising campaigns on the issue, and press articles. Other strategies that countries use include
the distribution of printed publications in discussion forums, seminars and specialized or public meetings.
Peru has prepared and disseminated news bulletins with the support of international cooperation agencies.
Of particular interest is the practice of the women’s advancement mechanism in Uruguay to disseminate
the results of time-use surveys for political and lobbying activity with decision-makers and public
authorities, with a view to incorporating these issues into the formulation and implementation of
public policies on gender.
The agencies that promote time-use surveys, primarily the women’s advancement programmes
and national statistics offices, are those that disseminate the results most widely. The most commonly
used strategy has been to post data on the Internet and to present publications and results at strategically
selected national and international events on time-use surveys.
An active role in promoting the use and dissemination of survey data is played by the information
systems and statistics areas of women’s institutes. In Guatemala, Mexico and Uruguay these institutes
have a gender statistics production area. Although Peru does not currently have a specific area, it is
constructing a system of gender indicators that will take into account and disseminate data on time use.
Uruguay has a gender information system that, in addition to processing data from the time-use surveys,
works closely with the Gender Equality Observatory of ECLAC, allowing for regional dissemination of
the data. In Peru, the INEI is establishing a specialized unit on time use as part of its implementation of
the law on the satellite account for unpaid work.
The gender information systems included in the institutional structures of mechanisms for
women’s advancement serve as promoters and users of data from time-use surveys. They play a
fundamental role in promoting, disseminating and legitimizing time use in national statistics offices and
in the formulation of gender policies.

C. Obstacles to implementation of time use studies by national

statistics institutes
The resource persons consulted in our study of national statistics offices in Uruguay, Ecuador and
Guatemala pointed to the lack of financing as one of the main obstacles to implementing time-use
surveys. The difficulties encountered in allocating funds for surveys of this kind has a negative impact on
the periodicity of time-use measurements, as well as on the modality used, as it is more costly to mount
an independent survey than to add a module to a broader household survey as an annex or supplement.
Mexico has been more successful than most countries in finding regular financing for time-use surveys,
and this is reflected in the quantity of such surveys to date. By contrast, Guatemala has a clear shortage
of earmarked national funding.
In addition to financial obstacles, national statistics offices may also suffer from technical and
operational shortcomings that impede the conduct of such surveys. Strategies for strengthening the
technical and methodological aspects of time use measurement will depend on building partnerships
with other stakeholders who can contribute specialized knowledge, such as academic entities, women’s

50

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

advancement programmes, and international cooperation agencies. Partnerships of this kind played a
role in the latest time-use surveys conducted in the countries selected.
In terms of methodological and technical obstacles to conducting surveys, Uruguay mentions
some related to statistical procedures, such as the selection of informants, the recording of simultaneous
activities, and the availability of trained and qualified personnel for carrying out the survey. Measuring
time use is in itself a complex statistical procedure that requires specialized and multidisciplinary
technical know-how and also poses methodological demands relating to the design of instruments, the
recollection capability of respondents, the calculation of time dedicated to activities, etc.
Another obstacle has to do with the low degree of dissemination and awareness of time use issues
within institutions and among the general public. Mexico notes that there is little knowledge about this
type of measurement, and that there is still little dissemination of data, despite the efforts made by the
country’s programme for the advancement of women. The dissemination of results and data from time-use
surveys is essential for raising awareness of gender gaps and inequities in the distribution of time use and
unpaid work between men and women. As greater numbers of institutional players appropriate, process,
articulate and disseminate these data, there will be greater demand on the part of society, academia and
institutions to broaden the sources of production for studies of this kind.
In light of the responses obtained from our consultations with national statistics offices, we
may say that the obstacles to conducting time-use surveys revolve around three key factors: economic
resources, dissemination, and methodological aspects.

D. The academic role in producing studies and research based

on information from time-use surveys
The consultation of qualified informants on time use involved the participation of academics from the
selected countries who contributed considered advice and substantive information on the role of academia
in promoting knowledge of time use, its progress and challenges.
The microdata from time-use surveys are used by academics to prepare articles, studies,
research, monographs and postgraduate theses in areas of the social sciences (more particularly in
sociology and economics). Experience shows that academics tend to be more involved in the use of
survey results than in the upstream phases of design and application. Uruguay showed a greater degree
of participation by academics with the INE in all stages of the surveys, including design, monitoring
of implementation, and production of analytical documents based on the results. The Gender Area
of the Sociology Department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of the Republic of
Uruguay stands out, among the countries studied, for its active role and influence in that country’s
time-use measurements.
In Mexico, the Colegio de México promotes and uses the results of time use studies. It is
currently preparing a book based on the 2009 time-use survey. The book is based in part on the Master’s
dissertation of students in the Master’s programme in demography, and young researchers contributed
to several chapters. This innovative experiment, which has been financially supported by UN-Women,
represents a pioneering effort in encouraging the new generations to make use of information from time-use
surveys in Mexico.
In Guatemala, the Universidad Rafael Landívar has been working under a technical cooperation
agreement with SEPREM on a joint project that culminated in a final report proposing “a critical path
for construction of the satellite account for unpaid work of households”, published in September 2009.
The results from the time use modules of the 2000 and 2006 ENCOVI served as inputs to that report.
The areas of study sparked by time-use surveys relate to gender issues, social well-being and
unpaid work, families and time use, “time poverty”, and poverty from a gender focus, the care economy,
the economic value of unpaid domestic work, and satellite accounts, among others.

51

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Research and studies based on information from surveys on time use and unpaid work52 have been
undertaken primarily by academics (in universities and research centres) and by international cooperation
agencies such as UN-Women, ECLAC, ILO, UNFPA and UNDP. Machineries for the advancement
of women, frequently supported by these international agencies, negotiate agreements with academic
institutions to produce studies that will serve the needs of gender policies. In Uruguay there is close
ordination between the National Women’s Institute and the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University
of the Republic. Recently, the topic of care for dependent persons has been the subject of considerable
knowledge development.
Along these lines, INMUJERES and the Social Sciences Faculty signed a cooperation agreement for
the pursuit of joint activities, including research relating to the “national survey on social representations
of care in Uruguay”, conducted in 2011, and a series of publications commissioned by INMUJERES from
the Sociology Department on child care, gender and unpaid work designed as policy and technical input
for the construction of the Integrated National Care System, which the government is currently designing
in cooperation with other social stakeholders. The web pages of INMUJERES and the Social Sciences
Faculty have given prominence to both activities.
An essential function of the academic world is to help promote and improve the measurement of time use
in two dimensions: the methodological and statistical aspects of surveys, in coordination with national statistics
offices, and the design and implementation of policies relating to gender, care and time use, in coordination
with machineries for the advancement of women. Strategies in connection with the first dimension, proposed
by the academics consulted, consist of contributing to the improvement of questionnaire design, systematizing
and analysing background data from time-use surveys, stimulating interest among financial organizations to
fund time-use surveys, generating forums for work and discussion on the methodological evaluation of time-use
surveys, and participating actively in specialized meetings on statistics and time use.
 Aguirre. R (Coord) (2007). Encuestas sobre uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado. UNIFEM. Uruguay.
Aguirre. R (Coord) (2009). Las bases invisibles del bienestar social. El trabajo no remunerado en Uruguay. UNIFEM, Uruguay.
Aguirre. R, (2009). Uso del tiempo y desigualdades de género en el trabajo no remunerado. In: Aguirre R. (Comp.) Las bases invisibles
del bienestar social. El trabajo no remunerado en Uruguay. INE, INMUJERES, UDELAR, UNIFEM, UNFPA. Uruguay.

Antonopoulos, R. and E. Memis (2010). Time and Poverty from a Developing Country Perspective.
 Bardasi, E. and Q. Wodon (2009). Working long hours and having no choice: time poverty in Guinea: In. Policy Research Working
Paper Series.
 Batthyány. K (2007). Políticas sociales y trabajo no remunerado en la región. In Encuestas sobre el uso del tiempo y trabajo no
remunerado. (Aguirre. R Coord.) UNIFEM. Uruguay.
 Batthyány. K (2010). El cuidado infantil en Uruguay y sus implicancias de género. Análisis a partir del uso del tiempo. In revista
nº27 Ciencias Sociales, Uso del tiempo, cuidados y bienestar. Desafíos de Uruguay y la región. DS/FCS/UdelaR, CSIC. Uruguay.
Publicaciones sobre uso del tiempo ECLAC:

Batthyány. K, (2008). Género, cuidados familiares y uso del tiempo. DS/FCS/UdelaR, UNIFEM, INMUJERES, INE. Uruguay.
 Batthyány. K, (2009) Cuidado de personas dependientes y género. En: Aguirre, R (Ed.) Las bases invisibles del bienestar social. El
trabajo no remunerado en Uruguay. UNIFEM. Uruguay.

Burchardt, T. (2008). Time and income poverty. Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE).

ECLAC (2009). Social Panorama of Latin America. Chile.

Espinosa, I. (2008). The Political and Social Economy of Care: Nicaragua Case. Research Report 2. United Nations Research Institute
for Social Development (UNRISD).
 Francavilla, F., Giannelli, G.C., Grotkowska, G. and Socha, M.W. (2011). Use of Time and Value of Unpaid Family Care Work: A
Comparison between Italy and Poland.
 Gammage, S. (2009). Género, pobreza de tiempo y capacidades en Guatemala: Un análisis multifactorial desde una perspectiva
económica. ECLAC.

Gammage, S. (2010). Time Pressed and Time Poor: Unpaid Household Work in Guatemala. Femist Economics.

Gammage, S. and Orozco, M. (2008). El trabajo productivo no remunerado dentro del hogar: Guatemala y México. Serie de estudios
y perspectivas 103. ECLAC.
http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/search.asp?cat=135desDoc=Uso%20del%20tiempo.

Lawson, D. (2007). A Gendered Analysis of Time Poverty. The Importance of Infrastructure. Global Poverty Research Group.

Salvador. S, Espino. A, Querejeta. M (2010). La economía de los hogares: más allá de los ingresos monetarios. CIEDUR and UNIFEM,
Uruguay.

Salvador. S. (2009). Necesidades de cuidados en los hogares. Aportes para la elaboración de Políticas Públicas de Igualdad de Género.
MIDES and UNIFEM, Uruguay.
 Soledad. S (2011). Hacia un Sistema Nacional de Cuidados en el Uruguay. In: El desafío de un sistema nacional de cuidados para el
Uruguay (Nieves Rico, coord.). Serie Seminarios y Conferencias Nº66 ECLAC. Chile.

Soledad. S, Ventura. V, Colacce. M, Querejeta. M (2011). La producción y el consumo de los servicios en el hogar: el caso de Uruguay.
Red Latinoamericana de Política Comercial (LATN).
Valenzuela. M. (2003). Desigualdades de género y pobreza en América Latina, ILO, Chile.
52




52

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

With respect to strategies that relate to academic support in the formulation of public policies,
there are proposals that include incorporating the time use dimension into policy analysis, promoting
academic research on the gender focus in public policies, disseminating academic information on time
use in government circles, coordinating studies and research for the construction of public policies with
machineries for the advancement of women, and creating cross-sectoral working arrangements between
academia, government and civil society for the design, monitoring and evaluation of gender policies.
Academic experts have expressed concern that the knowledge produced on time use will be retained
within their own academic institutions. They see the need to increase mechanisms of dissemination to
all social stakeholders (more specifically, civil society organizations and women’s groups, to provide
empirical evidence to substantiate their demands). They also point to the possibility of creating synergies
and interaction between Latin American academic institutions in conducting research on time use and
improving the circulation of information among researchers at the national level.

E. Training opportunities in gender, time use, unpaid work and

care issues
In recent years, a number of regional and national institutions have taken initiatives (typically championed
by gender divisions, programmes or areas) to provide training for graduates in the social sciences,
researchers and academics in research centres, professionals and technical staff of public agencies
(ministries, gender mechanisms and national statistics offices), as well as members of the technical teams
of NGOs (e.g. feminist activists, gender project coordinators).
Following is a compilation of the main courses at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels that
regularly include these issues in classroom, virtual or blended learning environments. The courses listed
were selected in light of a mapping exercise based on information available at the web pages of academic
and training institutions in each country.
•      Regional offerings
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)
International course on “Redistribution of time. An indicator of equality” (2008).53 Held in Santiago
at the headquarters of ECLAC. The course was organized by the Women and Development Unit of
ECLAC, with Cooperation from the Latin American and Caribbean Institute of Economic and Social
Planning (ILPES).
Virtual course (2011):54 “Time-use surveys”. The course was organized by the Gender Affairs Division and
ILPES, both units of ECLAC, with support from UN-Women.
Virtual course (2011):55 “Gender Statistics and Indicators, Version I” (2012).56 The course was organized
by the ECLAC Gender Affairs Division and ILPES, and incorporated topics related to time-use surveys.
Virtual course (2012):57 “Gender Statistics and Indicators, Version II”. The course is organized by the
ECLAC Gender Affairs Division and ILPES, and incorporates topics related to time-use surveys.

http://www.eclac.cl/mujer/noticias/noticias/4/32254/FolletoCursoTiempoG%C3%A9nero.pdf.
http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getprod.asp?xml=/ilpes/capacitacion/4/44394/P44394.xmlxsl=/ilpes/tpl/p15f.xslbase=/ilpes/tpl/topbottom.xsl.
55
http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getprod.asp?xml=/ilpes/capacitacion/0/42920/P42920.xmlxsl=/ilpes/tpl/p15f.xslbase=/ilpes/tpl/topbottom.xsl.
56
http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/ilpes/capacitacion/2/46002/P46002.xmlxsl=/ilpes/tpl/p15f.xslbase=/tpl/topbottom.xsl.
57
http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/ilpes/capacitacion/2/46002/P46002.xmlxsl=/ilpes/tpl/p15f.xslbase=/tpl/topbottom.xsl.
53
54

53

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Virtual course (2012):58 “Public policies relating to care “. The course is organized by the ECLAC Gender
Affairs Division and ILPES, and incorporates topics relating to the valuation of unpaid work and policies
for social co-responsibility .
Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) – Argentina Campus59
The Virtual Master’s Course in Gender, Society and Politics of the Regional Training Programme in Gender
and Public Policies, PRIGEPP, of FLACSO Argentina (2011) offers two seminars dealing with time use:
one is entitled “Poverty, globalization and gender: progress on the theoretical, research and strategic fronts,
with a special focus on Latin America”, and the other is entitled “Economy and gender: their links to the
formulation of public policies”.
Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, with support from UN-Women Bolivia – Andean region.
“International diploma in feminist economics, fiscal policy and gender-sensitive budgeting in intercultural
contexts” (2012).60 Organized by the postgraduate office for development sciences (CIDES) of the
Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, with support from UN-Women Bolivia – Andean region. This is a
virtual course with modules on paid and unpaid work by men and women (sexual division of labour) and
on the care economy and the role of social reproduction.
International Labour Organization – Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in
Vocational Training (ILO-CINTERFOR)
ILO-INTERFOR pursues various lines of research and training through its online platform, which provides
support for classroom courses, e-learning activities and practitioner communities in relation to vocational
training. It is a tool supplementary to the knowledge management platform and website, making it possible
to generate communication and the sharing of ideas horizontally and multi-directionally between members.
The principal topics addressed are gender, labour, vocational training and competencies with a focus on
gender, care and social co-responsibility.
•      Ecuador
Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) – Ecuador Campus
Virtual graduate course in “Gender and Economy” (2010).61 Gender studies programme. “Session 5:
alternative measures of well-being and work”, included the following contents: satellite accounts: placing
a monetary value on unpaid work. Time use studies: measuring all work, outcomes, progress and challenges.
Alternative measures of well-being.
Centre for Gender Economic Equality (CIGENERO), Ecuador62
The Centre for Gender Economic Equality engages in research and technical assistance in matters relating
to gender and the economy in order to “contribute to strengthening the capabilities of Ecuadorian women
in the exercise of their economic rights, and to the generation of policies to promote gender economic
equality in Ecuador.”
Its areas of work include teaching and training in economics and gender; fiscal policy and budgeting; the
care economy and time use; gender, labour and poverty; gender and the environment, including alternative
and multi-disciplinary methodological developments, programmes of study, design of curriculum modules
and structures.

http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/ilpes/capacitacion/8/47468/P47468.xmlxsl=/ilpes/tpl/p15f.xslbase=/tpl/topbottom.xsl.
59
http://www.prigepp.org/.
60
http://www.presupuestoygenero.net/images/documentos_noticias/CIDES-Triptico.pdf.
61
 http://www.flacsoandes.org/generoycultura/?page_id=1203.
62
 http://www.analitica.com/mujeranalitica/organizacionesfemeninas/1873733.asp.
58

54

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

CIGENERO reports the following recent experiments:
•

Analysis of paid and unpaid work in Ecuador, based on the National Time-Use Survey, CONAMUUNIFEM, September-December 2008.

•

Strengthening capabilities and methodological developments for analysing time use as an indicator
of gender equality in the National Statistics and Census Institute, October 2008-January 2009.

•

Research projects on interaction between the care economy and the market economy in Ecuador;
time use and women in the local setting; public policies and care: the Human Development Bonus
in Ecuador; time and care from the ethnic dimension; presented during the Congress of the Latin
American Studies Association (LASA), Ecuador, July, 2008.

•

Coordination of the Roundtable on mens time, womens time, during the Congress of the Latin
American Studies Association, Ecuador, July, 2008. Contributions to research for analysing the care
economy in Ecuador, on the basis of the 2007 Time-Use Survey for Ecuador.
•      Mexico

Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) -- Mexico Campus
The programme of degree courses, specialty courses and master’s courses in public policies and gender.
National University of Córdoba, Argentina, the Coordination Office of the Open University and Distance
Education of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (CUAED/UNAM) and the Inter-American
Universities Organization (OUI),
Coordination of the Open and Distance Education of the University and the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (CUAED/UNAM), the Interamerican University Organization (OUI) and the
National University of Cordoba, Argentina
The virtual course on “gender, social policies and development” contained specific modules on “gender,
families and public policies” and “public policies: gender mainstreaming, indicators and instruments”,
which incorporate data from time-use surveys.
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Faculty of Economics63
“Postgraduate specialization course in gender and the economy”. This course has been offered through the
postgraduate division of UNAM since 2007. The curriculum includes compulsory material on domestic
work and its calculation: time-use surveys and satellite accounts in Mexico.
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Faculty of Political and Social Sciences.
Sociological Studies Centre
“Gender sociology” course. Optional subject matter for the UNAM sociology degree. Addresses time use
in thematic units relating to women’s labour rights and the socio-demographic characterization of Mexico
from a gender perspective.
•      Uruguay
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the Republic
Postgraduate degree in “Gender and Public Policies” (2011 and 2012).64 In one of its modules, entitled
“gender-based social inequalities in Uruguay”, there is discussion of the main gender indicators
available in the country and in the region with respect to paid and unpaid work, time use, families and
households, education, health, political participation etc. It explores the trend of these indicators over
63
64

 http://www.depfe.unam.mx/especializaciones/GeneroEconomia.pdf.
http://www.fcs.edu.uy/archivos/Diploma%20Genero%202012.pdf.

55

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

time and the interplay between gender and other social divides, and reviews sources of information,
their availability and reliability.
Optional seminars include a postgraduate seminar on “families, care and well-being”.
Optional seminar on “gender inequalities in Latin America”. This is part of the master’s programme
in sociology offered by the Faculty of Social Sciences. One of its modules refers to well-being and
unpaid work. This seminar has been offered since 2012, but gender modules have been incorporated
into the master’s programme in sociology since 2001, through a seminar on “states of well-being,
families and gender relations” (2001 to 2003), a seminar on “development and gender” (2004 to 2008),
and a seminar on “gender inequalities” (2010 and 2011). All of the seminars included topics relating
to time use.
The central workshop (since 2007) on “gender and social inequalities”. A central research workshop for the
degree programme in sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences. It tracks and promotes student research
in these issues during the two-year degree programme. Key topics of teaching and research include time
use, unpaid work and care.
Optional seminar (since 2001) on “gender and families”. This is part of the degree programme in
sociology of the Faculty of Social Sciences. One of its modules deals with family issues, well-being and
unpaid work.
Faculty of Economic and Administration of the University of the Republics
Course on “economy and gender” (2013), organized by the Gender and Culture Programme of FLACSOUruguay, under contract with FLACSO-Mexico. This postgraduate programme is an academic continuation
of the degree programme in gender and equality policies that has been offered in Uruguay since 2011. The
master’s programme contains optional material relating to “labour market, labour policies and the gender
perspective”, including sessions on time use.
•      Peru
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Master’s programme in “gender studies” (2012).65 This includes a compulsory course of research in gender
relations, and optional courses on “economy and gender” and “gender, development and public policies”.
Both courses address issues relating to paid and unpaid work, families and care-giving.
•      Guatemala
Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) -- Guatemala Campus66
Master’s programme in “gender studies and feminism”. Includes modules on quantitative methodology
and on feminist economics and development. The Gender and Feminism programme of FLACSO
originally appeared in 1994 as the “women’s area”. It has evolved from a series of short courses to a degree
programme in gender studies, and now to a Master’s programme in gender studies and feminism.
A survey of educational offerings shows that Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay offer a broad
and varied range of training in gender and public policy issues. This process is just beginning in
Peru and Guatemala. While the greatest education opportunities, on the whole, are at the master’s
level, Uruguay and Mexico have now incorporated the gender focus, time use modules and the
care economy into undergraduate programmes offered by their national universities in the areas of
sociology and economics.

65
66

http://posgrado.pucp.edu.pe/maestrias/interdisciplinarias/maestria-en-estudios-de-genero/plan-estudios/.
 http://www.flacso.edu.gt/portal/?p=3808.

56

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Universities have included this topic in their gender education offerings at various levels:
undergraduate, diploma and master’s programmes. ECLAC appears in this list as offering specialized
training in gender statistics and time use. FLACSO, through its local and regional institutions, offers a
variety of academic training courses at the specialist, diploma and master’s levels.
There is a wide diversity of training available, and it is geared to ensuring that graduates will have
a positive impact, whatever their professional milieu: teaching, research, public policy, private business,
civil society organizations, etc.
The picture as it emerges reveals various efforts, if still in their infancy, to incorporate time use into
educational agendas dealing with gender and public policies. This systematization of courses provides a
first approximation of the educational offering, but the contents, approaches, methodological strategies
and bibliography remain to be fleshed out, as do the possibilities for articulating the existing offer
among the various modalities and education streams. It would seem that progress in the education area is
uneven between countries, and the quality, diversity and frequency of courses also vary depending on the
availability of suitable classroom space. A major challenge in this respect is to encourage academics and
institutions interested in these issues to take a hand in establishing networks among countries of the region,
with support from international cooperation, in order to expand educational opportunities in the areas of
gender, time use and public policies.

F. The impact of time-use surveys on national machineries for

the advancement of women and on the formulation of

public policies
Machineries for the advancement of women serve as valid and strategic interlocutors for disseminating the
results of time-use surveys. As observed, and as confirmed by consultations with resource persons involved
in those mechanisms in the countries examined, the data are presented with the objective of having an
impact on the gender policy agenda. At the same time, efforts are being made to maintain the periodicity
of surveys and to move forward with the production of new information and with the economic valuation
of unpaid work.
Mexico is among the countries making significant use of the results, thanks in part to partnerships
with the national government, the mechanism for women’s advancement, the statistics agency and the
academic world. An example of Mexico’s success in terms of the impact of time-use survey results on
public policies can be found in the national “Progresa-Oportunidades” programme. This programme of
cash transfers to vulnerable population groups has succeeded in reducing the employment of children in
unpaid domestic work through grants that allow girls to enter and progress through the formal education
system. Time-use measurements have shown a decline in unpaid work by girls and adult female members
of the household thanks to better educational coverage for this population segment. Data from the 2002
time-use survey showed that the time dedicated to household activities among recipients of Oportunidades
grants declined by an average of eight hours, in comparison to non-recipients. In addition to the education
grants, there are other effective instruments that are assisting in this reduction, such as school transport
services, childcare services, kindergartens, flexible school hours, and cash transfers to households with
high levels of unpaid female work.
The impact of Mexican time-use surveys in the statistics area can be seen in the preparation by
INEGI of the “satellite account for unpaid work in households 2003-2009”, based primarily on data from
the 2009 ENUT. That satellite account has been updated for the period 2006-2010.
Mexico’s INMUJERES has influenced the inclusion of time use in various general provisions
regarding information systems for monitoring the situation of women, and for which time-use surveys
represent an important input. The National Programme for Equality between Women and Men
(PROIGUALDAD) contains a line of action (6.2.10) that calls for “generating statistical instruments for
recognizing the characteristics of women’s paid and unpaid economic activities, their relation to domestic

57

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

life and time use, and their impact on the economy, on family well-being, on society and on government
tax revenues”. For its part, article 34 (IV) of the General Law on Equality between Women and Men
provides for the improvement and coordination of national statistics systems in order to achieve a better
understanding of gender equality issues in the national labour strategy.
Lastly, in the INMUJERES law, Mexico has created a system of statistical information on the
general status of women, which promotes studies and research for implementing an information system
for recording, monitoring and evaluating the social, political, economic and cultural conditions of women
in the various spheres of society.67
In Guatemala, the Presidential Office for Women (SEPREM) has used the results of the time use
module in the 2011 ENCOVI to demonstrate the need to quantify the value of total work performed
by women and to show that their contributions to development have gone unrecognized, as well as to
demonstrate the need for the national accounts to be supplemented by an account that will identify activities
and assign them a monetary value.68
SEPREM has sought to improve the recording of time use. It has made representations and provided
technical advice to the INE in order to have the data-gathering instrument reflect more closely the reality of
the various activities that women perform in the home. This is seen as a starting point for proposing public
policies more attuned to the problems identified.
In Peru, the Ministry for Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) has incorporated into its
policy training programmes the results of the 2010 time-use survey as compulsory reading, with a view to
ensuring that public policies are designed with due regard to gender inequalities in time use.
The MIMP has conducted an analysis of the principal gender gaps in time use,69 utilizing data from
the 2010 ENUT as the basis for policy proposals that will address gender gaps in such areas as the care
economy, social security for women, family relations, decent work, reconciliation of working and family
responsibilities, domestic workers, etc.70
The 2010 ENUT provided the basis for Law 27,900, approved in 2011, which includes unpaid work
in the national accounts and requires that a schedule be established for time-use surveys, together with
incorporation of a satellite account on unpaid work in the national accounts.71
The Peruvian Ministry of Labour and Employment72 (MTPE), together with the ILO, is spearheading
a policy directive on wage equality which considers information on the differences in the time dedicated
by men and women to paid work.73
The INEI of Peru, through its Research and Development Centre (CIDE), and UNFPA have issued
a call for proposals to develop research projects using the results of the 2010 ENUT.
In Uruguay, the results of the time-use surveys have been fundamental in promoting gender policies,
and in particular the creation of the National Care System,74 one of the country’s main initiatives in the
area of gender equality. The initiative, which is a programmatic commitment of the government, is headed
by a working group (created by presidential resolution 863/010) within the Social Cabinet (ministerial
authorities for the social policy area) and involving representatives from various state agencies. The Care
System will produce proposals for three target populations: children under the age of three, persons with
permanent disabilities, and dependent seniors.

 Information provided by the resource person at INMUJERES in Mexico.
 Information provided by the resource person at SEPREM in Guatemala.
69
Brechas de Género en el Uso del Tiempo. http://www.mimp.gob.pe/files/DIRECCIONES/DGM/DOCUMENTOS/Brechas_genero_
enelUso_Tiempo.pdf.
70
 Information provided by the resource person at MIMP in Peru.
71
 Information provided by the resource person at MIMP in Peru.
72
 The unit responsible for this task is the General Directorate of Fundamental Rights and Safety and Health in the Workplace, of the MTPE.
73
 Information provided by the resource person at MIMP in Peru.
74
 Information provided by the resource person at INMUJERES in Uruguay.
67
68

58

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

In Uruguay, INMUJERES is an active participant in the design and construction of the care system,
where the gender focus and time use constitute fundamental principles.
As another reflection of the importance accorded time use in Uruguay, strategic guidelines for
equality were incorporated into the National Plan for Equality of Opportunities and Rights (PIODNA
2007-2011) relating to time use and unpaid work and the need to implement care policies. This plan has
secured the commitment of the majority of ministries and has been approved by law.75
The extent to which women’s advancement mechanisms make use of time-use survey results for
influencing public policies varies across countries in terms of demands and intensity. Local realities,
stakeholder interests, and evidence from different forms of measuring time use tend to produce policy
agendas that are dissimilar and country-specific.
In our consultations with resource persons from the machineries for the advancement of women,
we asked about the main challenges involved in using the results of time-use surveys to influence public
policies. The challenges identified have to do with the need to disseminate those results more effectively
and strategically in order to influence public policies in ways that will respond specifically to the issues
arising from time use among women and men.
The informants from Peru and Guatemala identified the need to improve statistical and data gathering
procedures and to ensure that the time-use survey forms incorporate problem areas in public policies and
offer routes to more appropriate solutions.
Another issue indicated by the Mexican informant has to do with the periodicity of measurements,
recognizing that if surveys are interrupted this will make it more difficult to monitor unequal tendencies
in the distribution of time use between men and women. There are also statistical challenges in assigning
a value to unpaid work, an area where innovative action is needed.
Interagency negotiations and the alliances forged between machineries for the advancement of
women, the academic world, social organizations and national statistics offices can promote or impede
time-use measurements. In this respect, countries that have weak institutions dealing with gender affairs
offer fewer opportunities and resources for influencing public policies.
With respect to issues relating to care-giving and the sharing of responsibility, the persons
consulted in Uruguay and Guatemala cited challenges at two levels: the need to improve the recording of
childcare activities in order to dimension the problem and design public policies, and the need to ensure
that policies relating to care should bring about real changes in the inequitable distribution of time use
between men and women. The area of care and time use also poses the challenge of designing public
actions and responses that will have an impact on active employment policies and on discrimination
against women in the labour market.

75

 Information provided by the resource person at INMUJERES in Uruguay.

59

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

IV. Looking to the future

The picture presented in this paper suggests that time-use surveys
have gained greater legitimacy in most countries of the region. Some
countries, indeed, have acquired significant experience in this area,
from which lessons can be drawn for expanding the use of the surveys,
for enhancing the information produced from them, for refining analysis
of the data, and for allowing civil society and government authorities to
employ them more effectively in the preparation and implementation of
public policies.
In the following section we discuss two dimensions that should be
considered as this process advances:

1. The conceptual and

methodological dimension
There is a need to incorporate or improve the capture of time dedicated to
caring for persons, an activity that receives much less detailed treatment
than domestic work in many surveys. Particular attention must be paid to
the provision of care for elderly and disabled dependents. The study shows
that time-use surveys collect fairly detailed information on childcare
activities, but that they produce relatively little information specific to
these other two population groups, which in many countries constitute
social policy priorities. Information on the care needs of all dependent
population groups is an essential input for dimensioning the development
of quality care services in the context of the new care systems.
Special attention must be paid to the intersecting inequalities
related to gender, socioeconomic level, race and ethnic origin and
place of residence. This means that survey samples must be designed

61

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

to allow the analysis of time use patterns for different groups. In this respect, time-use measurements
conducted through modules attached to broader household surveys have the advantage of yielding other
sociodemographic and socioeconomic data that can be utilized for an integrated analysis of time use that
will identify cross-inequalities. By increasing the range of data for each household they offer greater
possibilities for multidimensional analysis. Yet it must be recognized that expanding the sample is bound
to increase measurement costs proportionately.
An agreed set of indicators for time use and paid work is needed, with the emphasis on care
for dependent persons. Such indicators can be valuable tools for substantiating and supporting
the design and implementation of public policies. They should take into account studies that have
identified inequalities in time use and unpaid work and that have led to progress in the design and
implementation of policies that not only recognize inequalities but allocate resources for redistribution
through sector policies and comprehensive care policies. A case in point is Uruguay, which is in the
lead in the study of care issues. There, the academic world, the mechanism for the advancement of
women, and the official statistics institute are now drawing up a questionnaire for the next time-use
survey, in which the emphasis will be placed on activities involved in caring for children by age
group (0-3 years, 4-5 years, and 6-12 years), persons with disabilities and seniors over 65 years.
Those activities include feeding, transportation, hygiene, health care, education, and the use of public
and private care services. The importance attached to measuring care activities in Uruguay reflects
a political and institutional commitment to construct an integrated care system that will give initial
priority to the most vulnerable population groups and those in greatest need of care, moving gradually
thereafter to universal public care services. The next time-use survey will provide input for the design
of that system.
Processing of the available information requires more refined analytical techniques, such
as multivariate analysis, in order to identify the distribution and intensity of the effects of various
independent variables on care activities.
The inclusion in time-use surveys of the time dedicated to family care could be complemented
with information on care provided by other households, the market, the State and the community.
Such information is essential for appreciating the social organization of care as it emerges from the
combination of care activities performed by women and men according to different socioeconomic levels,
ethnic or racial groups, and place of residence.
One of the greatest challenges in measuring time use is to ensure that this is done periodically
and systematically. Our study revealed inter-country differences in the pattern and frequency of such
measurement, which may be interrupted or accelerated by numerous methodological and technical
factors, and also by political and institutional ones.
Another challenge is to achieve statistical harmonization and comparability of time-use surveys.
It is apparent that the most recent time-use surveys in Latin America and the Caribbean rely more
heavily on the ICATUS than the CAUTAL classification. And yet, while more than half of the countries
are using ICATUS, there are still some that classify activities according to their own criteria, and this
poses an obstacle to harmonizing time use statistics. Some attempts to adapt to CAUTAL have been
observed in the most recent studies, however, indicating greater recognition of this instrument. The use
of international and regional classifications, however, is not yet extensive enough to allow harmonization
and comparability. It would be well to strengthen and broaden statistical discussion of the advantages and
limitations of classifications at the regional level. The necessary harmonization should leave a margin
of freedom, something that countries seem to value when it comes to designing survey forms consistent
with their specific characteristics.
The importance of preparing satellite accounts has been squarely on the international agenda
since the Beijing Platform (1995), and has been reinforced by expert consensus and specialized
meetings at the international and regional levels. The preparation of satellite accounts and the
economic valuation of unpaid work is recognized in the objectives of at least four countries’ time-use

62

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

surveys. Mexico, Uruguay, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru have recently
made progress in implementing satellite accounts and economic valuations of unpaid work, and time-use
surveys provide essential input in this respect. Assigning value to unpaid work and constructing
satellite accounts are both areas that are open to conceptual and methodological debate. As there are
no standard rules, there is a need for further research and exchange of experience among countries
that have developed such accounts. It is essential to devise common criteria for linking time-use
survey research agendas with the information needs of the satellite accounts, given the relationship
between the activities that the surveys cover and the values that the accounts record as a function of
those activities. The idea should be to provide an interface between the respective areas responsible
for preparing the time-use surveys and the satellite accounts, as they belong to different spheres from
the technical and institutional viewpoints.

2. The political and institutional dimension
Machineries for the advancement of women are an essential component of the interagency network
driving time-use surveys. They have a role in the design, implementation, analysis, dissemination and
policy impact of time-use measurements. Countries that have had successful experience with time-use
surveys have consolidated gender mechanisms that exert influence at all stages of the process. As well,
and as demonstrated by countries such as Guatemala, Mexico and Uruguay, the gender information
systems of women’s advancement mechanisms are active promoters and users of time-use survey data.
Their function is essential for promoting, disseminating and legitimizing time use considerations in
national statistics offices and in the formulation of gender policies.
There is a need to enhance the capacities of women’s advancement mechanisms for preparing
indicators based on time-use survey data. The information demands of those mechanisms, of other
government spheres, and of the academic world will favour the institutionalization of the surveys within
national statistics systems and their inclusion in programme and budget planning.
Interagency linkages should be encouraged, particularly between statistics institutes and women’s
advancement mechanisms, on one hand, and academic institutions on the other. Mexico, Ecuador and
Uruguay have achieved a high degree of interagency cooperation in time use measurement. In Uruguay,
the academic sector is actively involved in all stages of the measurement process. Solid links with the
academic world can be of benefit in political and institutional as well as conceptual and methodological
terms in the process of preparing time-use surveys.
Cooperation by international agencies (in particular ECLAC, UN-Women, UNFPA, UNDP,
AECID) remains essential for promoting and supporting the methodological as well as the interagency
aspects of time-use surveys. There is a need to continue strengthening measurement activities in
countries that have discontinued time-use surveys. To encourage periodicity is key for standardizing the
pace of surveys in the countries studied. In this respect, it should be possible to coordinate resources
and activities among cooperation agencies to create regional funds that will encourage more surveys in
those countries that are lagging behind for lack of resources. Interagency strategies could be devised
for promoting and supporting surveys. The informants consulted in the national statistics offices
of Uruguay, Ecuador and Guatemala pointed to the lack of financing is one of the main obstacles to
conducting time-use surveys.
Collaboration and articulation should be promoted among the various regional and national
education offerings. Training in methodological and statistical aspects is very important, but so is
the acquisition of conceptual tools for understanding the processes of launching and designing public
policies. Having information available on time use is not enough to influence policies. There are
conflicts and tensions that must be recognized between stakeholders involved in these policies, who
may interpret things through different prisms. In order to provoke policy decisions, the arguments must
be posed in public debate and covered in the communications media so as to establish a supportive
coalition for advocacy. In this connection, we noted in our study some successful strategies pursued

63

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

by women’s advancement mechanisms. In Uruguay, wide dissemination of the time-use survey results
gave a boost to the lobbying efforts of INMUJERES (in collaboration with the academic world) to
induce the authorities to incorporate these issues into gender policies. A complementary strategy is
that pursued in Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay, where social organizations (women’s networks, gender
advocates, feminists, civil society) have acquired greater political clout in matters of time use, gender
and social policies.

64

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Bibliography
Andean Community (2012), II Reunión de expertos gubernamentales en
encuestas del uso del tiempo de la Comunidad Andina, Lima.
Carrasco, Cristina and Mónica Serrano (2005), “Propuesta para una cuenta
satélite de la producción doméstica para los hogares de Cataluña” [online]
http://idescat.cat/docs/docest/es-llars-pdf.
DANE (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística) (2012), Encuesta
Nacional de Uso del Tiempo ENUT Colombia, Bogota.
Durán Heras, María-Ángeles and Jesús Rogero García (2009), “La investigación
sobre el uso del tiempo”, Cuadernos Metodológicos, No. 44, Madrid, Centro
de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS).
ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) (2010a),
Time for equality: closing gaps, opening trails (LC/G.2432(SES.33/3)),
Santiago, Chile.
_____ (2010b), “Brasilia Consensus”, Report of the eleventh session of the
Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean
(LC/L.3309), Santiago, Chile [online] http://www.eclac.cl/mujer/noticias/
paginas/6/40236/ConsensoBrasilia_ING.pdf.
_____ (2007), “Quito Consensus”, Report of the tenth session of the
Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean
(LC/G.2361(CRM.10/8)), Santiago, Chile [online] http://www.eclac.cl/
publicaciones/xml/5/29555/dsc1i.pdf.
Esquivel, Valeria (2012), “El cuidado infantil. Un análisis en base a la Encuesta
de Uso del Tiempo en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires”, Las lógicas del cuidado
infantil. Entre las familias, el Estado y el mercado, V. Esquivel, E. Faur and
E. Jelin, Buenos Aires, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)/United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Gómez Luna, María Eugenia (2010), Directrices y referentes metodológicos para
armonizar las encuestas sobre uso del tiempo. Propuesta para discusión,
Mexico City, National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
IBGE (Brazilian Geographical and Statistical Institute) (2011), Comité y estadísticas
de género en Brasil. VII encuentro internacional de estadísticas de género:
empoderamiento, autonomía económica y políticas públicas, Mexico.

65

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

ILO (International Labour Organization) (2008), Report of the 18th International Conference of Labour
Statisticians, Geneva.
INE (National Statistical Institute of Chile) (2009), Encuesta Experimental sobre Uso del Tiempo en el Gran
Santiago. Antecedentes metodológicos y principales resultados, Santiago, Chile, Departamento de
Estudios Sociales.
INE (National Statistical Institute) (2010), Encuesta de Uso de Tiempo en Hogares (EUTH). Primeros avances
en México.
INE (National Statistical Institute of Guatemala) (2011), Uso del Tiempo en Guatemala Encuesta Nacional de
Condiciones de Vida, Guatemala.
INE/BCV (National Statistical Institute of Venezuela/Central Bank of Venezuela) (2011), I Encuesta del Uso
del Tiempo para Venezuela, Caracas.
INE/FCS (National Statistical Institute of Uruguay/Faculty of Social Sciences) (2008), Uso del tiempo
y trabajo no remunerado en el Uruguay. Módulo de la Encuesta Continua de Hogares, Septiembre,
2007, Montevideo.
INEC (National Statistics and Census Institute of Costa Rica) (2012), “Experiencias metodológicas de la
Encuesta Uso sobre Tiempo Gran Área Metropolitana”, Décima reunión internacional de expertas y expertos
en encuestas de uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado, Mexico.
INEC (National Statistics and Census Institute of Nicaragua) (1998), Informe general de la Encuesta Nacional
de hogares sobre medición de nivel de vida (EMNV’98), Nicaragua.
INEC (National Statistics and Census Institute of Panama) (2012), Décima reunión internacional de expertas y
expertos en encuestas de uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado, Mexico.
Letablier, Marie-Thérèse (2001), “Le travail centré sur autrui et sa conceptualisation en Europe”, Travail, genre
et sociétés, vol. 2, No. 6, La Découverte.
ONE (National Statistical Office of Cuba) (2002), “Encuesta sobre Uso del Tiempo, Cuba” [online] http://www.
one.cu/publicaciones/enfoquegenero/tiempo/eut.pdf.
ONE (National Statistical Office of the Dominican Republic) (2009), Panorama Estadístico:Uso del tiempo en
los hogares: una aproximación a su medición, Santo Domingo.
Orozco, Mónica and Sarah Gammage (2008), “El trabajo productivo no remunerado dentro del hogar:
Guatemala y México”, Estudios y Perspectivas series, No. 103 (LC/L.2983-P; LC/MEX/L.889), Mexico
City, ECLAC subregional headquarters in Mexico [online] http://www.eclac.cl/publicaciones/xml/0/34730/
Serie_103.pdf.
Pérez, Alba (2012), Encuesta Uso del Tiempo 2007 y II Reunión de expertos gubernamentales en encuestas del
uso del tiempo de la Comunidad Andina, Lima.
Robeyns, Ingrid (2003), “Sen´s capability approach and gender inequality: Selecting relevant capabilities”,
Feminist Economics, New York, Routledge.
Salvador, Soledad and others (2010), La producción y el consumo de los servicios en el hogar: el caso de
Uruguay, Montevideo.
Sen, Amartya (2005), “Human rights and capabilities”, Journal of Human Development, vol.6, No. 2, Routledge.
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) (2001), Human Development Report 2001, New York, Oxford
University Press.
United Nations (2006), Guide to Producing Statistics on Time Use: Measuring Paid and Unpaid Work (ST/ESA/
STAT/SER.F/93), New York, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
_____ (1995), Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women (A/CONF.177/20/Rev.1) [online] http://
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/pdf/Beijing%20full%20report%20E.pdf.
_____ (1979), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women [online] http://
www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm.

66

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annexes

67

Annex 1

68

2009

2012
(Planned)

2011

Chile

Colombia

Costa Rica

Greater Metropolitan
Area

National, Cabecera
[Admin. Centre].
5 urban regions and
4 rural regions.

Greater Santiago

States of Pará,
Pernambuco, Río
Grande del Sur, São
Paulo and Distrito
Federal

2007

National

2009
(pilot)

Brazil

National, urban
and rural

Dominican
Republic

2010/2011
(Two pilots)

Bolivia
(Plurinational
State of)

Rosario-Santa Fe

Urban-rural

2010

Argentina

Geographical
Coverage

Cuba
2001
Habana Vieja
Pinar del Rio
San Juan
y Martínez
Bayamo Guisa

Latest Time-use
Survey

Country
15 years
and over

Universe

Two questions on
time use in the
Demographic and
Health Survey.

Time-Use Survey.

Time-Use Survey in
the Greater
Metropolitan Area

National Time-Use
Survey.

Experimental
Time-Use Survey

Time-Use Survey
separate from the
National Continuous
Household Survey
(PNAD)

Women
15-49 years,
children under
5 years,
men 15-59
years.

15 years
and over

12 years
and over

10 years
and over

12 years
and over

10 years
and over

Survey of Household 10 years
Time Use
and over

Time-Use and
Volunteer Activities
Survey

Name

32,431 households;
27,195 women
(individual questionnaire)
27,975 men
(individual questionnaire)

HV: 280 dwellings.
720 persons.
PR: 560 dwellings.
1389 persons.
SJM: 560 dwellings.
1557 persons.
B: 560 dwellings.
1420 persons.
G: 560 dwellings.
1383 persons

2,520 dwellings

54,000 interviews

1,571 dwellings

11,940 households

5,744 dwellings

1000 dwellings

Sample

Previous
day

Week

Week

Previous
day

Random
day

Previous
day

Previous
day

Period

Questions

Independent

Independent

Independent

Independent

Independent

Independent

Independent

Modality

Activities list.
International
classifiers not used

Diary
(10 minutes)
ICATUS

CAUTAL
CMUT

Activities list
CAUTAL
ICATUS

Diary
(30 minutes)
ICATUS

Diary
(15 minutes)
ICATUS

Diary.
CATBOL CAUTAL

Diary
International
classifiers not used

Instrument

2006

1985
1988
1997

2004

2007
2008
2009
2010

2001
2005
2008

2001

2005

Previous
Surveys

(continued)

Latin America and the Caribbean: methodological characteristics of the latest time measurement surveys

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122
Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

2010

2011

2011

2009

El Salvador

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

1998

2012

Ecuador

69

2010

2007

2011

Panama

Peru

Uruguay

Venezuela
(Bolivarian
Republic)
National

National

National

National Urban

7 Macro-regions

National

Time-Use Survey.

Module on time use
and unpaid work in
the Continuous
Household Survey

National Time-Use
Survey.

Time-Use Survey

Time-Use Module
in Household
Survey of Living
Standards.

National Time-Use
Survey.

Time-Use Module
in Permanent
Multipurpose
Household Survey .

Time-Use Module
in National Survey
of Living Conditions
(ENCOVI)

National

National

Time-Use Module
in Multipurpose
Household Survey.

National Time-Use
Survey.

Name

National

National, urban
and rural

Geographical
Coverage

Source: Prepared by the authors from country information available on the web.

2011

Nicaragua

Latest Time-use
Survey

Country

Annex 1 (concluded)

12 years
and over

14 years
and over

12 years
and over

15 years
and over

6 years
and over

12 years
and over

10 years
and over

7 years
and over

10 years
and over

12 years
and over

Universe

Week

Week

Previous
day

Week

Previous
day

Previous
day

Previous
day

Week

Period

10,500 households.
32,500 persons.

Previous
day

4,100 households. 8,973 Week
persons

4,580 dwellings

3,720 dwellings

2,325 dwellings

17,000 dwellings

21,330 dwellings

14,337 households

3,728 dwellings

22,968 dwellings

Sample

Independent

Module

Independent

Module

Module

Independent

Module

Module

Module

Independent

Modality

Diary
ICATUS

Activities list
ICATUS

Activities list
ICATUS

Activities list.
International
classifiers not used

Activities list.
International
classifiers not used

Activities list
CMAUT
ICATUS

Activities list.
International
classifiers not used

Activities list.
International
classifiers not used

Activities list.
International
classifiers not used

CAUTAL

Instrument

2008

2003

2006

2006

1996
1998
2002

2009 

2000
2006

2005 

2005
2007
2010

Previous
Surveys

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122
Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2
Latin America and the Caribbean: objectives, activities, classifier and manuals for
the latest time-use measurements
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Manuals/forms

Argentina
(2010)

To obtain information
on unrecognized
work in the community
by men and women
that contributes to
local development,
social justice and
gender equity

International
classifiers
not used

http://www.
presupuestoygenero.net

Bolivia
(Plurinational
State of)
(2010/2011)

To measure the paid
workload plus the
unpaid workload; to
generate input for a
future satellite account
on unpaid work of
households.

7 questions concerning
individuals’ participation
in specific activities:
caring for children
or the elderly; cooking
and cleaning the house;
supplying the household
with food; washing/
ironing clothing; raising
animals, fetching
firewood or water, and
household management
and maintenance.
Diary recording
simultaneous activities.

CATBOL
CAUTAL

INE (Presentation):
Encuesta de
Uso de Tiempo en Hogares
(EUTH). Primeros avances”
in Mexico, 2010.

Brazil
(2009)

To measure the time
that people devote to
travel from one place
to another (for work,
study etc.);
to measure the time
people devote to
domestic chores;
to measure the time
people devote to
volunteer work;
to measure paid
work performed in
government and
nongovernmental
institutions and
in households.

ICATUS
Number of hours per
week devoted to principal/
secondary/other work, by
age group.
Food production,
construction, household
cleaning and maintenance.
Shopping and travel time.
Volunteer work.
Number of hours per
week spent on household
chores, by age group.
Caring for persons under
and over 15 years.
Free time activities.
Commuting to work
or school.

IBGE Cunha. L “Encuesta
sobre el USO DEL TIEMPO”
at the Eighth International
Statistics Meeting on Time
Use and Public Policies.
SCA, 2010.

Chile
(2009)

To quantify the total
workload (paid and
unpaid);
to measure the
distribution by sex of
domestic unpaid work
within the household;
to estimate the use
and distribution of time
devoted to health care;
to quantify the time
devoted to leisure,
study, travel and
other activities.

Paid work
Household chores
(preparing food,
cleaning the house and
surroundings, care of
clothing, administration,
household repairs)
Caring for members of the
household (physical care,
accompaniment, education,
emotional support and
transportation for babies,
juveniles, adults, seniors).
Study (attending classes,
homework, meetings
and seminars)
Media and ICTs.
Attending shows and
performances, etc.

INE (Presentation):
“Encuesta Experimental
sobre Uso del Tiempo en
el Gran Santiago”. Sistema
Integrado de Encuesta de
Hogares (SIEH) 2008

(continued)

70

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Colombia
(2012)

To obtain statistical
information for
measuring the time
that people devote to
different types of paid,
unpaid and
personal activities;
to serve as input
for constructing the
satellite account for
unpaid work.

CAUTAL
Identification.
ICATUS
Composition of the
household.
Household data.
Housing conditions.
Caring for children under
five years; attendance at
care centres, distribution of
time by place of residence
and time devoted to
specific recreation and
leisure activities.
Education (5 years
and over)
Time use (personal
activities, paid and
unpaid work)
Time use, rural component
(unpaid work)

Costa Rica
(2011)

To provide detailed
information sufficient
for understanding
the economic
contribution of women
and men in the form of
unpaid work;
to make available to
government authorities,
the academic sector,
business, NGOs
and international
cooperation agencies,
as well as society in
general, information
essential to the
formulation of public
policies on gender
equality and to the
social and economic
valuation of unpaid
domestic work.

Paid activities: work at
the market.
Unpaid activities: work
in the strict sense and
commuting time. Domestic
activities (washing, ironing,
cooking, cleaning, caring
for children, seniors, the
sick, tending the garden,
washing the car, shopping).
Non-domestic activities
(volunteer work and farming
for own consumption).
Non-work-related activities,
such as training, personal
needs and care, recreation,
culture and socializing.

Manuals/forms
National Statistics
Department (DANE)
(Presentation) Correa. M:
“Encuesta Nacional de Uso
del Tiempo ENUT Colombia
2012”, Peru, 2012.

Based on
Mexican
experience:
activities were
selected and
classified in
accordance
with the
Mexican
methodology.
CAUTAL

(continued)

71

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Cuba
(2001)

Two objectives: one
relates to the need for
statistics on population
groups, addressing
gender equality in paid
and unpaid work, and
the other to information
on household plans for
the division of work.

ICATUS
Work.
Domestic (unpaid) work.
Domestic work for own
use within the household:
does not include unpaid
domestic services for other
households.
Domestic work in caring for
children and persons with
disabilities and/or senior
members of the household
(unpaid).
Unpaid assistance to other
households (relatives,
friends and neighbours):
includes direct unpaid
assistance to other
households, and excludes
assistance provided through
an organized effort.
Social activities.
Hygiene and personal care.
Study.
Free time activities.
Social and community
participation.
Attending cultural,
entertainment and sporting
events.
Hobbies, games and other
pastimes.
Participation in sports.
Use of the mass media.
Other free time activities

Dominican
Republic
(2007)

Time devoted to an
occupation.
Time devoted by women
aged 15 to 49 years to
domestic chores.

Activities
Classifier

Manuals/forms

International
classifiers are
not used

(continued)

72

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Ecuador
(2012)

To generate
information on the
gender distribution
of time between paid
activities, unpaid
activities, and free
time, as input for
the analysis and
formulation of public
policies through
implementation of an
independent National
Time-Use Survey in
Ecuador.
To develop a
methodology for
measuring time use
independently.
To generate
information on activities
and behaviour of
individuals and the
distribution of their
time, with respect to
work, cultural activities
and leisure, while
taking into account
ethnic diversity.
To provide information
on unpaid production
of care services in the
home. In other words,
to have information on
unpaid work devoted
to caring for children,
the sick, persons with
disabilities, and older
persons who require
constant attention.
To have information
needed for
implementing the
Plan Nacional del
Buen Vivir [“National
Plan for Living Well”]
and the Millennium
Development Goals
that will allow the
government to design
policies to achieve
gender equality.
To have statistical
information for
construction of the
satellite account on
unpaid work.

Manuals/forms

CAUTAL
Data on the dwelling and
on the household.
Information on members of
the household.
Occupational
characteristics: income.
Social programmes:
disability.
Social programmes:
seniors.
Social programmes:
children under five.
Time use.
Healthcare needs and
services.
Learning and study.
Preparation of food for
home consumption.
Household maintenance.
Care and production of
clothing.
Purchases, services and
management/ organization.
Caring for children.
Construction and repairs.
Productive activities for
own consumption.
Unpaid activities for
other households, the
community, and volunteer
work.
Recreation and culture.
Family and socializing.
Care and support for
household members with
disabilities.
For all persons outside the
home.

(continued)

73

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Manuals/forms

El Salvador
(2011)

To identify the total
burden of paid and
unpaid work among the
population;
to visualize statistically
the division of the
workload between men
and women;
to recognize the
structure of the
distribution of tasks
among members of
the family and the
distribution of time in
the pursuit of activities
such as productive
work, domestic work,
community work,
education or technical
training, recreation,
and personal care

Productive work.
Work in the home.
Community work.
Education or technical
training.
Recreation and
personal care

International
classifiers not
used

Guatemala
(2011)

To understand and
evaluate the living
conditions of the
population and
the factors that
determine them.
To provide information
for the design of
poverty reduction
strategies, social
programmes, and
modernization and
decentralization of
the state.

Work as an employee.
Independent work.
Unpaid work.
Weaving, embroidering or
making clothing.
Raising animals.
House repairs.
Commuting to work.
Education activities.
Cleaning house, disposing
of garbage, caring for
children.
Food preparation and
cleanup.
Washing dishes and
utensils.
Washing and ironing
clothing.
Disposing of garbage.
Gathering firewood.
Caring for children.
Household purchases and
payments.
Personal care and
grooming, sporting,
cultural and leisure
activities, and community
work, and time for eating,
sleeping or resting.
Parallel activities.

International
classifiers not
used

INE, Uso del Tiempo en
Guatemala Encuesta
Nacional de Condiciones de
Vida. ENCOVI 2011.

Honduras
(2011)

To use information
as an instrument
for analysis on
participation and time
devoted to domestic
activities, unpaid work
in the community,
education and
personal care.

Domestic work includes
housecleaning, hygiene
and clothing care;
preparing and cooking
food, shopping in
markets, supermarkets
or neighbourhood shops;
caring for children, the sick
and the elderly.

International
classifiers are
not used

INE: http://www.ine.gob.hn/
drupal/node/213

(continued)

74

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Mexico
(2009)

General: To record
the time devoted by
persons 12 years
and over to their
daily activities and
to provide statistical
input for measuring all
forms of work, paid and
unpaid, performed by
individuals.
Specific: To recognize
the scope of total work,
paid and unpaid.
To recognize the
distribution of unpaid
activities in the
household;
To provide inputs for
evaluating unpaid
work and preparing
household satellite
accounts for measuring
the contribution of
women and men to
the economy, with a
gender focus;
To provide a broad
database on
educational, cultural,
leisure and personal
care activities, for
use in the analysis
and design of public
policies;
To improve estimates
of household economic
activities and thereby
improve the national
accounts.

Work for the market
CMAUT
(economic activities).
ICATUS
Commuting to and from the
workplace or school.
Primary production
(breeding or tending to
livestock, planting and
tending to gardens and
plots; gathering, hauling or
storing water or firewood;
gathering fruits, mushrooms
or flowers, fishing or hunting;
preparation or weaving of
clothing, blankets etc.).
Learning (attending classes,
time devoted to study, doing
homework, school exercises
or any other academic
activity).
Domestic chores
(preparing, heating, serving
food, washing dishes,
housecleaning, cleaning and
care of clothing and footwear,
maintenance, installation and
repairs to the dwelling and to
household goods, purchases
for household members,
payments and processes,
household administration).
Care and support for other
household members (caring
for members who need help,
help and care for household
members under six years,
or under 15 years or over 60
years, emotional support and
companionship for household
members).
Support to other households,
to the community, and
volunteer work (domestic
chores, caring for persons,
community or volunteer
work).
Socializing, sports, games,
culture and entertainment
(visits to other homes,
celebrations, cultural,
recreational or sporting
events, artistic or cultural
activities, practicing sports,
etc.).
Use of the mass media
(reading in print, watching
television, listening to the
radio, surfing or searching
the web).
Personal care (sleeping,
eating, hygiene, grooming,
praying, meditating,
resting, going to medical
appointments or recovering
from an illness).

Manuals/forms
INEGI: “Encuesta Nacional
sobre el Uso del Tiempo. ENUT
2009. Metodología, Tabulados
Básicos y Cuestionario”. http://
www.inegi.org.mx/prod_serv/
contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/
productos/encuestas/
especiales/enut/2009/
ENUT_2009_MTB.pdf
INEGI (Presentation)
Gómez. M: “Cuestionario
de la Encuesta Nacional
de Uso del Tiempo 2009
México” at the Second
International Seminar on
Time-Use Surveys, Brazil,
2010.

(continued)

75

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Nicaragua
(1998)

To determine how
the population
distributes its time
among productive and
reproductive activities;
to quantify the time
devoted to different
activities; to establish
differences by sex and
by area of residence

International
Employment: farming
classifiers are
and livestock activities,
non-agricultural household not used
businesses, unpaid work,
and looking for work.
Education: attending
classes in schools,
institutes, universities and
training centres, plus time
devoted to study
and homework.
Home maintenance:
cooking, cleaning, washing
dishes or clothing, ironing;
home repairs; gathering
firewood; fetching water;
buying food, clothing,
household articles; caring for
children; caring for the sick.
Personal activities:
eating; sleeping;
personal care (bathing,
dressing etc.); rest and
recreation (reading,
watching television, taking
refreshments, conversing
etc.); seeking healthcare.
Social and community
activities: social gatherings
(weddings, birthdays,
funerals etc.), visiting friends
and relatives; community
and parish tasks.
Other activities: playing
sports, personal or legal
proceedings, religious
activities, resting from illness
or disability, free time, and
unspecified time use.

Panama
(2011)

To record the time
that men and women
devote to unpaid
domestic chores in
order to assign a
value to the economic
contribution of
these activities;
to recognize gender
inequities in the overall
workload

International
Time devoted to:
classifiers are
Domestic work. Cooking.
not used
Housecleaning.
Construction and repairs.
Care of clothing. Shopping.
Management and
organization. Assistance
provided freely to other
households.
Care work. Caring for
children and adolescents.
Caring for the sick and
other care for persons of all
ages. Caring for household
members with disabilities
who need daily attention.
Volunteer work.
Personal needs.
Educational activities.
Family and socializing.
Free time.
Other activities not
listed above.

Manuals/forms

INEC Panama. 10th
International Meeting of
experts on surveys of time
use and unpaid work,
Mexico 2012.

(continued)

76

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Peru
(2010)

To appreciate the
overall workload,
considering different
types of work,
differentiated by
gender;
to determine the
male and female
characteristics
concerning the
distribution and use of
time in the tasks and/or
activities of daily life as
needed for personal,
family and social
development;
to show the gender
differences in time
use for the various
activities between the
country’s social groups
and regions

Manuals/forms

Personal needs.
ICATUS
Educational activity.
Cooking.
Cleaning, care and
production of clothing.
Housecleaning.
House repair, construction
and maintenance.
Care for babies, children
and adolescents.
Care for family members
with some symptom, illness
or disease.
Shopping for the
household.
Management and
organization of the
household.
Family and socializing.
Free time.
Caring for gardens and
livestock (not as an
economic activity).
Support for other
households (unpaid).
Volunteer work for
organizations or
institutions.
Caring for household
members with physical
or mental disabilities or
permanent illnesses, or
those of an advanced
age, who are totally
dependent.
Other tasks not
listed above.

(continued)

77

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (continued)
Country

Objective

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Uruguay
(2007)

To provide information
on the time that male
and female household
members, 14 years
and older, devote to
unpaid activities;
to establish
relationships between
unpaid and paid work;
to provide information
for quantifying the
economic and social
contribution of
unpaid work;
to prepare a set of
basic indicators or
understanding and
taking decisions
on gender equality
policies.

ICATUS
(60 closed questions)
Domestic work for the
family (feeding, preparing
or cooking food, serving
food, setting the table,
removing and washing
dishes, cleaning the house,
cleaning and caring for
clothing, daily shopping,
buying food, beverages,
cleaning articles, buying
clothing for self or another
family member, raising
animals, collecting flora
and fauna but not as an
economic activity, caring
for pets, fetching water,
firewood, fruits, exclusively
for the household, tending
to or raising animals or
growing a crop, housing
construction and repairs,
external appointments).
Travel and transport time
(commuting to work or
appointments).
Recreational activities
Unpaid community or
volunteer tasks.
Caring for children
(nursing or feeding,
bathing or clothing, taking
to and from daycare,
kindergarten or school,
helping with homework,
playing games, taking for
walks, care for dependent
or sick persons).
Feeding or helping to eat
(bathing, cleaning, clothing,
grooming or helping with
these tasks, administering
medicines, accompanying
to health services, taking
for walks or keeping
company, performing some
special therapy or helping
with exercise).
Assistance received
from outside the home
(paid and unpaid
assistance for child care,
paid or unpaid assistance
in caring for dependents or
sick persons)
Help to other households
and other families,
provided free (helping with
domestic chores, caring
for children, caring for
dependents, paying for
domestic services).

Manuals/forms
Survey Form http://www.
ine.gub.uy/microdatos/
ech/modulo%20uso%20
del%20tiempo%202007/
Formulario%20Modulo%20
del%20tiempo.pdf
Dictionary of variables
http://www.ine.gub.uy/
microdatos/ech/modulo%20
uso%20del%20tiempo%20
2007/DICCIONARIO%20
MUT%
202007.pdf
Interviewer’s handbook
http://www.ine.gub.uy/
biblioteca/uso%20del%20
tiempo%202007/manual_
eut.pdf

(continued)

78

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 2 (concluded)
Country

Objective

Venezuela (Bolivarian To generate basic
statistics on the
Republic)
time devoted by
(2011)
the members
of Venezuelan
households to daily
activities, from the
perspectives of gender,
lifecycle and social
class;
to measure the
time devoted by
household members to
unpaid work;
to quantify the time that
household members
devote to paid work
in the
formal and informal
sectors of the
economy;
to characterize
individuals’ time
use on the basis
of occupational
classifications (active
or inactive), economic
sector (formal or
informal) and type of
employment (formal
or informal).

Activities Recorded

Activities
Classifier

Time devoted to paid
and unpaid activities in
the household and the
community.
Time devoted to
principal and secondary
employment.
Time spent travelling and
waiting.
Time use for cultural and
entertainment activities.
Caring for sick family
members.

Source: Prepared by the authors from country information available on the web.

79

Manuals/forms

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 3
Latin America and the Caribbean: Constitutional and legal basis and agencies
participating in the latest time-use measurements
Country

Constitutional Or Legal Basis

Executing Agencies

Associated Agencies

Financing
Agencies

Argentina
(2010)

The Third Municipal Plan for
Equality of Opportunities and
Treatment between Men and
Women, of Rosario, Santa Fe
(2011-2015), contains a theme
relating to the democratization
of family and social relations
through equitable distribution of
time use between men
and women.

Faculty of Economic
Sciences and Statistics
of the National University
of Rosario, in partnership
with the Provincial
Statistics and Census
Institute of Santa Fe
and the United Nations
Volunteers Programme
(UNV).

UN Women

Bolivia
(Plurinational
State of)
(2001)

Article 338 of the Bolivian
Constitution (2009) provides that
“the State shall recognize the
economic value of household
work as a source of wealth and
shall quantify it in the public
accounts”. The National Statistics
Institute (INE) is instructed to
include this topic for the purpose
of generating public policies.

National Statistics
Institute (INE)

INE
UNIFEM

Brazil
(2009)

The second National Plan of
Policies for Women, of the
Special Secretariat on Policies
for Women (SPM), 2009-2011,
calls for the IBGE and the SPM to
conduct nationwide research on
time use.

Brazilian Institute of
Geography and Statistics
(IBGE) and the Special
Secretariat on Policies
for Women (SPM)

Secretariat on
Policies for Women
(SPM)
Committee on
Gender Studies and
Time Use
IPEA

IBGE
UNIFEM

Chile
(2009)

The Plan for Equality between
Men and Women (2010-2020) of
the National Women’s’ Service
(SERNAM) of the Government
of Chile, under the theme of
social co-responsibility, calls
for developing methodologies
to measure unpaid care work
performed by women as
caregivers for children, persons
with severe disabilities and elderly
persons, in order to calculate
their economic contribution and
include it in the national accounts,
for the urban and rural sectors. In
addition, there is a plan to create
a periodic measurement system
of time distribution of productive
and reproductive work between
men and women in different
socioeconomic contexts and
different stages of the lifecycle,
which would constitute the basis
for new or revised policies on
work/family reconciliation and
shared responsibility.

National Statistics
Institute (INE)

PAHO
Ministry of Health
Technical working
group of INE,
MINSAL and
SERNAM

INE
PAHO
IDB
UNIFEM

(continued)

80

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 3 (continued)
Country

Constitutional Or Legal Basis

Executing Agencies

Associated Agencies

Financing
Agencies

Colombia
(2012)

Law 1413 of 2010 requires
the Office of the President of
the Republic to “include the
care economy in the system
of national accounts in order
to measure the contribution of
women to the country’s economic
and social development, and
as a basic tool for defining and
implementing public policies”.
The Time-Use Survey is defined
in Law 1413 as “a methodological
instrument for measuring the time
that people devote to different
activities, paid and unpaid work,
and personal activities”.
The National Public Policy on
Gender Equity for Women (20122022) of the Presidential Council
on Equity for Women, referring
to efforts to reconcile working
responsibilities with family
obligations, calls for studies and
discussion to provide a better
understanding of time use within
the home and the distribution
of care-giving work in order to
dimension the division of roles
within the home, considering rural
and urban, gender and ethnic
differences. As well, it calls for
adjusting the national accounts
to reflect unpaid domestic work
and care-giving work, traditionally
performed by women, and
currently classified as inactive.

National Statistics
Department (DANE)

Presidential Council
on Equity for
Women.

Revolving Fund
of the National
Statistics
Department –
FONDANE

Costa Rica
(2011)

In 2011, the Parliamentary
Services Department of the
Legislative Assembly approved
a bill “to include in the system
of national accounts the
contribution of unpaid work of
procreation and care of children,
performed by the workforce, by
older persons and by persons
with disabilities, in the home”.
The bill authorizing the project to
keep accounts of the contribution
of domestic work to the economy
and society was unanimously
approved in 2012 (resolution
18,073) by the Women’s
Committee of the Legislative
Assembly [sentence defective??].
It is currently pending approval
by the full Legislature. Once it
is approved, it will be possible
to appreciate and evaluate the
contribution that unpaid work in
the home, performed primarily by
women, is making to society and
the national economy.

National University
(UNA), National
Women’s Institute
(INMUJERES), and
National Statistics and
Census Institute (INEC)

Inter-Agency
Commission on the
accounting treatment
of women’s work,
coordinated by
INAMU, comprising
the Ministry of
Labour and Social
Security (MTSS), the
Ministry of Planning
and Economic Policy
(MIDEPLAN), the
Women’s Studies
Centre of the
University of Costa
Rica (CIEM), and the
Population Studies
Institute (IDESPO).

UNA
INMUJERES
INEC

(continued)

81

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 3 (continued)
Country

Constitutional Or Legal Basis

Executing Agencies

Associated Agencies

Financing
Agencies

Cuba
(2001)

The National Plan of Action and
Follow-Up to the Beijing Conference,
adopted by the government in 1999,
instructs the Ministry of Economy
and the National Statistics Office to
include demographic, gender, age
and race variables in their ongoing
and special statistics, and to apply
appropriate methodologies for
gathering such data as the basis for
gender analysis in all agencies.

National Statistics Office
(ONE)
Territorial Statistics
Office (OTE)

United Nations
Statistics Division
Statistics Institute
of Italy
Federation of Cuban
Women
Ministry for Foreign
Investment
and Economic
Cooperation

ONE
UNIFEM
Local Human
Development
Programme
UNDP

Social and Demographic
Studies Centre
(CESDEM)

Presidential
Council on AIDS
(COPRESIDA)

United States
Agency for
International
Development
(USAID),
World Bank,
Executive
Commission
for Health
Sector Reform
(CERSS),
MEASURE DHS,
Macro
International
Inc., USA

Dominican
Republic
(2007)

Ecuador
(2012)

Legal or constitutional basis.
The 2008 Constitution calls for
“quantifying and highlighting the
contribution of human care work,
self-consumption and self-support”.
Among the general provisions,
provision 8 provides that “the
State, through the corresponding
institutions, shall compile statistics
and keep satellite accounts as
part of the System of National
Accounts, for use in measuring
the economic activity of individuals
and organizations comprising the
Economía Popular y Solidaria and
the Sector Financiero Popular y
Solidario, and activities of family selfconsumption and human care”.
The Plan Nacional para Buen Vivir
(2009-2013), enshrined in the
new Constitution, recognizes the
importance of “social reproduction”
activities as a fundamental theme
of an equitable, socially responsible
development model. The policy
guidelines for this plan include
quantifying and highlighting the
contribution of human care, selfconsumption and self-support, and
recognizing, rewarding and providing
social protection to reproductive care
in the household.
The Equal Opportunities Plan
2005-2009, declared as government
policy by Executive Decree 1207-A
of 9 March 2006, calls for a national
time-use survey as strategic input
for the formulation of policies with a
gender focus.

INEC, Transition
Commission to the
Council on Women and
Gender Equality.
.

INEC
ECLAC

(continued)

82

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 3 (continued)
Country

Constitutional Or Legal Basis

Executing Agencies

Associated Agencies

Financing
Agencies

El Salvador
(2011)

The National Policy for Women
(2011-2014), enshrined in
the Law of March 2011, and
headed by the Salvadoran
Institute for Women’s
Development (ISDEMU), in
its section on care and social
protection, institutionalizes in
the National Statistics System
the measurement of time
use by men and women, and
calculation of the contribution
of unpaid domestic work to the
national accounts.

Ministry of Economy,
General Directorate of
Statistics and Census

Guatemala
(2011)

The National Policy for the
Promotion and Integral
Development of Women (Law
of March 1999), headed by
the Presidential Secretariat
for Women, provides that the
National Statistics System (SEN)
must see to the collection and
systematization of data, including
specific modules in existing
instruments for measuring
progress with disaggregation by
sex and ethnic origin

National Statistics
Institute (INE)

National Statistics
System (SEN)
Secretariat of
Planning and
Programming
(SEGEPLAN)
Universidad
Rafael Landívar of
Guatemala
ECLAC

ECLAC
AECID
UNFPA
UNDP
WORLD BANK
INE
NORAD
SIDA

Honduras
(2011)

The second Gender Equality and
Equity Plan 2010-2022 (Executive
Decree Law PCM-028-2010)
of the National Women’s
Institute establishes as strategic
objectives the generation of legal
and institutional mechanisms to
recognize women’s reproductive
work and to incorporate it into
the national accounts and into
gross domestic product (OE 4.1),
and to develop, implement and
publish the Time-Use Survey as
guidance in the formulation of
gender equality policies in the
labour area, and the valuation of
reproductive work in the national
accounts (OE 4.3)

National Statistics
Institute (INE)

National Women’s
Institute
ECLAC
Economic Agenda
for Women
Programme.
.

UNIFEM
INE

Mexico
(2009)

Article 21 of the Law on the
National Statistics and Geographic
Information System (LSNIEG)
provides that the National
Subsystem of Demographic and
Social Information is to “generate
a set of key indicators addressing
at least the following topics:
population and demographic
dynamics, health, education,
employment, distribution of
income and poverty, public safety
and the administration of justice,
government and housing”.
Under that law, a permanent
Specialized Technical Committee
on information with a gender
perspective was formed to create
the Satellite Account on
Domestic Work.

National Institute of
Statistics and Geography
(INEGI)
National Women’s
Institute (INMUJERES)

Ministry of
Economy
UNFPA
UNIFEM

INEGI.
The Gender
Equity Committee
of the Chamber
of Deputies of the
60th Legislature
approved a
budget allocation
for the survey in
2009

(continued)

83

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 3 (concluded)
Country

Constitutional Or Legal Basis

Executing Agencies

Nicaragua
(1998)

National Statistics and
Census Institute (INEC)

Panama
(2011)

National Statistics and
Census Institute (INEC)

Associated Agencies

Financing
Agencies
INEC
World Bank
IDB
UNDP
UNFPA
SIDA
NORAD
Government
funding

National Women’s
Institute

INEC
UNFPA
UN Women

Peru
(2010)

Law 28,983 on equal opportunities National Statistics and
between women and men provides Informatics Institute
(INEI)
guidelines for the government in
improving the official statistic system
by incorporating data disaggregated
by sex. The National Plan for Equal
Opportunities between Women and
Men (2006-2010) of the Ministry
of Women’s Affairs and Social
Development, together with the
INEI, intends to design and apply
instruments for gathering official
statistical information with the
gender indicators
Article 2 of law DS 027-2007 PCM,
in section 2 on equality between
men and women, provides for the
guarantee of “the full exercise of
civil, political economic, social and
cultural rights of women”.
Law No. 29700, adopted in June
2011, provides for a satellite
account for unpaid work in the
national accounts, with particular
emphasis on unpaid domestic work,
by means of time-use surveys.

Ministry of Women’s
Affairs and
Development
“Manuela Ramos”
Movement
Gender Affairs
Division of ECLAC

INEI
UNFPA
UN Women

Uruguay
(2007)

Law 18,104 on the promotion of
equal rights and opportunities
between men and women
(2007). National Plan for Equality
of Opportunities and Rights
2007-2011 (INMUJERES).
Executive Decree 184/007 of
2007 established the general
framework for fulfilling the
government commitment to
introduce the gender perspective
into public policies. The National
Plan for Equality of Opportunities
and Rights includes, among other
activities, “promoting studies
to quantify and highlight the
contribution of women’s unpaid
work” (Law 10.1).

Scientific Research
Council of Spain
(CSIC)
National
Women’s Institute
(INMUJERES)

INE
Community of
Madrid
UNIFEM

Central Bank of
Venezuela
Ministry of the
Popular Power
for Planning and
Finance

INE
Central Bank of
Venezuela (BCV)

Venezuela
Bolivarian
Republic of)
(2011)

National Statistics
Institute (INE)
Sociology Department
of the Faculty of
Social Sciences of
the Universidad de la
República.
This was developed
as part of the project on
“time use and unpaid
work of women in Brazil
and countries of the
Southern Cone
2006-2007”
National Statistics
Institute (INE)

Source: Prepared by the authors from country information available on the web.

84

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 4
Latin America and the Caribbean: reports, publications and presentations on latest
time-use measurements
Country

Reports

Publications and presentations

Argentina
(2010)

“Los usos del tiempo
en la ciudad de Rosario.
Análisis económico
y social”. Faculty of
Economics Rosario
Santa Fe, Rosario, 2012.

http://www.presupuestoygenero.net

Bolivia
(Plurinational
State of)
(2001)

INE (Presentation), Encuesta de Uso de Tiempo en Hogares (EUTH).
Primeros avances en México, 2010.
Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean
community, Peru, 11 to 23 April 2012.

Brazil
(2009)

IBGE (Presentation): Fatmato Ezzahrá Schabib Hany, Comité y estadísticas
de género en Brasil VII encuentro internacional de estadísticas de género:
empoderamiento, autonomía económica y políticas públicas. Mexico, 2011.
IBGE (Presentation): Cunha Lucia, Encuesta sobre el USO DEL TIEMPO.
At the Eighth International Statistics Meeting on Time Use and Public
Policies. SCA, 2010.

Chile
(2009)

INE Department of
Social Studies, Encuesta
Experimental sobre Uso
del Tiempo en el Gran
Santiago. Antecedentes
Metodológicos y
Principales Resultados.
http://www.ine.cl/canales/
chile_estadistico/
estadisticas_
sociales_culturales/
encuesta_tiempo_libre/
pdf/presentacion_
eut_17_04_2009.pdf

Colombia
(2012)

INE (Presentation), Encuesta Experimental sobre Uso del Tiempo en el
Gran Santiago. Sistema Integrado de Encuesta de Hogares (SIEH) 2008
INE Department of Social Studies, Encuesta Experimental sobre Uso del
Tiempo en el Gran Santiago. Antecedentes Metodológicos y Principales
Resultados.
http://www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/estadisticas_sociales_culturales/
encuesta_tiempo_libre/pdf/presentacion_eut_17_04_2009.pdf

DANE (Presentation) Vega A, Producción de estadísticas de uso del tiempo
y trabajo no remunerado, 2011.
DANE (Presentation) Correa Mónica, Encuesta Nacional de Uso del
Tiempo ENUT Colombia 2012.
DANE (Presentation) Freire E. Medición de trabajo no remunerado:
Encuesta de Uso de Tiempo en el DANE (2011 – 2013)
Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean
Community, Peru, 11 to 23 April 2012.

Costa Rica
(2011)

INEC Costa Rica,
“Experiencias
Metodológicas de la
Encuesta Uso sobre
Tiempo Gran Área
Metropolitana” at the 10th
International Meeting of
Experts on Surveys of
Time Use and Unpaid
Work, Mexico 2012.

Inter-Agency Commission on the accounting treatment of women’s work,
(INAMU), Sistematización de los aspectos teóricos y metodológicos
utilizados en el diseño y aplicación del módulo de uso del tiempo en Costa
Rica Julio, 2004. 2006.
Inter-Agency Commission on the accounting treatment of women’s work,
(INAMU), El trabajo que hacen mujeres y hombres en Costa Rica no
se cuenta igual. Principales Resultados del Módulo de Uso del Tiempo
2004. 2008.
Juliana Martínez Franzoni (Publication), La pieza que faltaba: uso del
tiempo y regímenes de bienestar en América Latina. Aportes-Nueva
Sociedad 199.

Cuba
(2001)

ONE, Encuesta sobre Uso
del Tiempo. 2002.
UNDP, Margarita Guerrero,
Sumario de Comentarios
y Recomendaciones
Encuesta de Uso del
Tiempo. 2001 On line:
http://www.undp.org.cu/
pdhl/misionunifem.html

ONE, Encuesta sobre Uso del Tiempo. 2002.

(continued)

85

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 4 (continued)
Country

Reports

Publications and presentations

Dominican
Republic
(2007)

Centre for Social and
Demographic Studies
(CESDEM), Encuesta
Demográfica y de Salud
2007. Informe Preliminar.

National Statistics Office (ONE) (bulletin), Panorama Estadístico: Uso
del tiempo en los hogares: una aproximación a su medición. Dominican
Republic, 2009.

Ecuador
(2012)

Alba Pérez, Presentación
Encuesta Uso del Tiempo,
Ecuador, 2007.
Alba Pérez, Encuesta
Nacional del uso del
tiempo Ecuador at the
12 International Meeting
on Gender Statistics,
Mexico, 2012.

Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean
community, Peru, 11 to 23 April 2012.

El Salvador
(2011)
Guatemala
(2011)

Alba Pérez (Presentación), Logros y retos pendientes de la implementación
de las encuestas de Uso del Tiempo en la Región para su articulación con
las políticas públicas. Ecuador, 2011. Avellaneda at the 46th meeting of the
Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America
and the Caribbean.
Ministry of Economy, General Directorate of Statistics and Census. http://
www.minec.gob.sv/index.php?option=com_contentview=articleid=201:di
gestyccatid=1:noticias-ciudadanoItemid=77

INE, Uso del Tiempo en
Guatemala Encuesta
Nacional de Condiciones
de Vida. ENCOVI 2011.

Honduras
(2011)

Orlando Monzón, INE Guatemala, La Medicion del Trabajo No
Remunerado en Guatemala 2011 at the 12 International Meeting on Gender
Statistics, Mexico, 2012.
INE: http://www.ine.gob.hn/drupal/node/213

Mexico
(2009)

INMUJERES-FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT (Bulletin),
Las desigualdades de
género vistas a través del
estudio del uso del tiempo
Resultados de la Encuesta
Nacional sobre Uso del
Tiempo 2009. 2010.
INEGI (report), 2° Premio
Regional a la innovación
Estadística Informe
técnico de la operación
de la Encuesta Nacional
sobre el Uso del Tiempo
2009. 2010

INEGI (Presentation) Gómez María, Cuestionario de la Encuesta Nacional
de Uso del Tiempo 2009 México. At the Second International Seminar on
Time-Use Surveys, Brazil, 2010.
INMUJERES (Presentation) Orozco Mónica, El uso del tiempo, trabajo
no remunerado y políticas públicas en México. At the Eighth International
Statistics Meeting on Time Use and Public Policies (SCA)
Peraza Escobosa, A. (Article), Usos del tiempo en la relación: familia,
trabajo y género. In Contribuciones a las Ciencias Sociales, February 2012,
www.eumed.net/rev/cccss/18/
INMUJERES (Publication) Pedrero. M, Valor económico del trabajo
doméstico en México. Aportaciones de mujeres y hombres, 2009. 2010.

Nicaragua
(1998)

INEC, Informe general
de la encuesta nacional
de hogares sobre
medición de nivel de vida
(EMNV’98).

INEC (Presentation) Isolda Espinosa. G, La experiencia de Nicaragua.
At the Second International Meeting of Experts on Time-Use Surveys,
Measurement and Valuation. Mexico, 2004
INEC-Programa MECOVI (Publication) Isolda Espinosa. G/Aguilar. M, Uso
del tiempo de las y los nicaragüenses. 2001.

Panama
(2011)
Peru
(2010)

INEC Panama. 10th International Meeting of Experts on Surveys of Time
Use and Unpaid Work, Mexico 2012.
INEI, MIMDES, Encuesta
Nacional de Uso del
Tiempo 2010. Principales
resultados. 2011.
UNFPA (Information
Bulletin), Según
resultados preliminares
de la ENUT 2010. Las
mujeres en el Perú
tienen una mayor carga
de trabajo que los
hombres. 2011.
http://www.unfpa.org.
pe/boletin/pdfboletines/
Boletin1322011.pdf

Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean
community, Peru, 11 to 23 April 2012.
Ministry for Women and Development (Bulletin) Freyre. M, López E.:
Edgardo, Brechas de género en el uso del tiempo, Peru, 2011.

(continued)

86

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 4 (concluded)
Country

Reports

Publications and presentations

Uruguay
(2007)

National Statistics Institute
(INE), Faculty of Social
Sciences (FCS) (Report),
Uso del tiempo y Módulo
de la en el Uruguay trabajo
no remunerado Encuesta
Continua de Hogares,
September, 2007. 2008.

National Statistics Institute (INE), Faculty of Social Sciences (FCS)
(brochure), Uso del tiempo y Módulo de la en el Uruguay trabajo
no remunerado Encuesta Continua de Hogares, Septiembre, 2007.
Uruguay, 2008.
INE (Presentation) Vernengo A. Uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado
en el Uruguay Módulo de la Encuesta Continua de Hogares September
2007. At the Eighth International Statistics Meeting on Time Use and
Public Policies (SCA)
INE (Presentation) Pagnotta N. Uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado
en el Uruguay Módulo de la Encuesta Continua de Hogares September
2007. Mexico, 2007.
Sociology Department of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University
of the Republic (DS/FCS/UdelaR), UNIFEM, INMUJERES, INE (Article)
Batthyány Karina, Género, cuidados familiares y uso del tiempo.
Uruguay, 2008.
UNIFEM Aguirre Rosario (Publication Coordinator), Encuestas sobre uso
del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado. Uruguay, 2007.
UNIFEM Batthyány Karina. (Publication), Políticas sociales y trabajo no
remunerado en la región (Uruguay). In Encuestas sobre el uso del tiempo
y trabajo no remunerado, Rosario Aguirre, coord. Uruguay, 2007.
UdelaR, INE, INMUJERES, UDELAR-FCS-DS, UNIFEM, UNFPA Aguirre
Rosario (Publication Editor), Las bases invisibles del bienestar social. El
trabajo no remunerado en el Uruguay. Uruguay, 2009.
UdelaR, INE, INMUJERES, UDELAR-FCS-DS, UNIFEM, UNFPA Aguirre
Rosario. (Article), Uso del tiempo y desigualdades de género en el trabajo
no remunerado. In: Aguirre Rosario. (editora) “Las bases invisibles del
bienestar social. El trabajo no remunerado en Uruguay. Uruguay, 2009.
Sociology Department of the FCS-UdelaR, CSIC Batthyány Karina.
(Article), El cuidado infantil en Uruguay y sus implicancias de género.
Análisis a partir del uso del tiempo. In revista nº27 Ciencias Sociales,
Uso del tiempo, cuidados y bienestar. Desafíos de Uruguay y la región.
Uruguay, 2010.

Venezuela
(Bolivarian
Republic)
(2011)

National Statistics Institute (INE), Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV)
(Presentation), I Encuesta del Uso del Tiempo para Venezuela. 2011.

Source: Prepared by the authors from country information available on the web.

87

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 5
Latin America and the Caribbean: total paid and unpaid working time
(average hours in the period of reference)
Country and
location

 

Period

Universe

 

Unpaid
work

 

Paid
work

Total
workload

Average hours
 

Latest
available data
on time-use

Average hours

Average hours

Men

Women

Men

Women

Men

Women

Argentina
(Buenos Aires)

2005

Yesterday

Employed population
15 to 74 years

1.7

3.3

9

7.7

10.7

11

Bolivia
(Plurinational
State of)

2001

Yesterday

Employed population
7 years and over

3.3

5.1

7.5

6.7

10.8

11.8

Brazil

2008

Yesterday

Employed population
10 years and over

9.2

20.9

42.5

35.3

51.7

56.1

Chile Greater
Santiago

2008

Yesterday

Employed population
12 years and over

0.8

2.9

8

7.5

8.8

10.4

Week

Employed population
15 years and over

13.1

32

48.5

49.5

61.6

72.4

Colombia

2007-2010

Costa Rica

2004

Yesterday

Employed population
12 years and over

2.7

6

9

7.8

11.8

13.8

Cuba
Habana Vieja

2001

Yesterday

Employed population
15 years and over

1.2

3.6

5.6

3.4

6.8

7

Pinar del Río

2001

Yesterday

Employed population
15 years and over

1.5

3.5

5.2

3.1

6.7

6.7

San Juan y
Martínez

2001

Yesterday

Employed population
15 years and over

1.5

4.3

6.2

3.4

7.7

6.7

Bayamo

2001

Yesterday

Employed population
15 years and over

1.3

4.4

6.1

2.4

7.4

6.8

Guisa

2001

Yesterday

Employed population
15 years and over

1.5

5.2

4.6

2.1

6.1

7.3

Ecuador

2007

Week

Employed population
12 years and over

39.1

67.1

48.1

40.3

87.2

107.5

El Salvador

2005

Yesterday

Employed population
10 years and over

4.3

8.7

14.4

13.5

?

?

Guatemala

2006

Yesterday

Employed population
7 years and over

1.3

5.2

8.5

7.3

9.8

12.5

Honduras

2009

Yesterday

Employed population
10 years and over

0.41

3.2

?

?

?

?

Mexico

2009

Week

Employed population
12 years and over

16.1

43.5

34.7

15.3

50.8

58.9

Nicaragua

1998

Yesterday

Employed population
6 years and over

2.8

4.3

7.8

7.6

10.6

11.9

Peru

2010

Week

Employed population
12 years and over

15.33

39.28

50.38

36.25

66.31

75.53

Uruguay

2007

Week

Employed population
15 years and over

13.4

34.8

34.6

18.7

48

53.5

Source: Prepared by the authors (update and incorporation of countries) on the basis of ECLAC, Gender Affairs Division,
Tiempo total de trabajo (remunerado y no remunerado) Recopilación experiencias encuestas Uso del tiempo en los países.
Chile, 2010.

88

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 6
Latin America and the Caribbean: sources of the latest time-use measurements,
general and by country
Country

Sources

General

Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean community, Peru, 11 to 23 April
2012. (Document) http://estadisticas.comunidadandina.org/eportal/contenidos/1906_8.pdf
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Gender Affairs Division. Milosavljevic V.
Tiempo total de trabajo (remunerado y no remunerado) Recopilación experiencias encuestas Uso del
tiempo en los países, Chile, 2010. (Document) http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/oig/noticias/
paginas/3/38403/P38403.xmlxsl=/oig/tpl/p18f.xsl
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Vivian Milosavljevic and
Odette Tacla. Incorporando un módulo de uso del tiempo a las encuestas de hogares: restricciones y
potencialidades, Chile, 2007. (Document) http://www.eclac.org/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/publicaciones/
xml/1/28541/P28541.xmlxsl=/mujer/tpl/p9f.xslbase=/tpl/top-bottom.xslt
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), Andrés Espejo, Fernando Filgueira and María Nieves Rico, Familias latinoamericanas:
organización del trabajo no remunerado y de cuidado. Chile, 2010. (Document) http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/
getProd.asp?xml=/publicaciones/xml/2/41822/P41822.xmlxsl=/dds/tpl/p9f.xsl
UN Women María de la Paz, Encuestas de Uso del Tiempo, Cuentas Satélite y Políticas Públicas. Foro
de Alto Nivel Autonomía económica de las mujeres y políticas públicas. Hacia políticas justas. 8 and 9
August 2012 San Salvador, El Salvador. (Presentation) www.isdemu.gob.sv
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Vivian Milosavljevic, Gender
Equality Observatory for Latin America and the Caribbean: Indicador de carga total de trabajo. At the
Eighth International Statistics Meeting on Time Use and Public Policies of the Statistics Conference of
the Americas (SCA), Mexico City, 30 June, 1 and 2 July 2010. (Presentation) http://www.eclac.cl/mujer/
noticias/noticias/3/40283/VivianMilosavljevic.pdf
Statistics Conference of the Americas (SCA), Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
(ECLAC), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), National Institute of Statistics
and Geography (INEGI), National Women’s Institute (INMUJERES) María de la Paz, Informe de las
actividades sobre estadísticas de uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado del Grupo de Trabajo de
Género en el marco de la Conferencia Estadística de las Américas. At the Eighth International Statistics
Meeting on Time Use and Public Policies of the Statistics Conference of the Americas (SCA), Mexico
City, 30 June, 1 and 2 July 2010. (Presentation) http://www.eclac.cl/deype/noticias/noticias/2/41522/
S13_INEGI_uso_tiempo.pdf

Argentina
(2010)

http://www.presupuestoygenero.net

Bolivia
(Plurinational
State of)
(2001)

National Statistics Institute (INE)(summary) http://www.ine.gob.bo/anda/ddibrowser/?id=48

Brazil
(2009)

Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) Fatmato Hany, Comité y estadísticas de género
en Brasil. At the 12th International Meeting on gender statistics: empowerment, economic autonomy and
public policies, Mexico City, 5, 6 and 7 October 2011. (Presentation) http://www.inegi.org.mx/eventos/2011/
encuentro_genero/doc/03-05MR-04FatmatoHany-IBGE.pdf

National Statistics Institute (INE) Jorge Leiton, Encuesta de Uso de Tiempo en Hogares (EUTH). Primeros
avances. Mexico, 28, 29 and 30 September 2010. (Presentation)
Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean community, Peru, 11 to 23 April
2012. (Document) http://estadisticas.comunidadandina.org/eportal/contenidos/1906_8.pdf

Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) Lucía Cunha, Encuesta sobre el uso del tiempo. At the
Eight International Statistics Meeting on Time Use and Public Policies, SCA, Mexico City, 30 June, 1 and 2
July 2010. (Presentation) http://www.eclac.cl/mujer/noticias/noticias/3/40283/LuciaCunha.pdf

(continued)

89

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 6 (continued)
Country

Sources

Chile

National Statistics Institute (INE), Encuesta Experimental sobre Uso del Tiempo en el Gran Santiago.
Sistema Integrado de Encuesta de Hogares (SIEH), Chile, 2008. (Presentation) http://www.ine.cl/canales/
sala_prensa/noticias/2008/mayo/pdf/presentacion300508.pdf

(2009)

INE: “Resultados preliminares e implicancias metodológicas Encuesta Experimental sobre Uso del
Tiempo (EUT) en el Gran Santiago” 2008. http://www.ine.cl/canales/sala_prensa/revistaseconomicas/
presentaciones.php
INE: “Desarrollo de las estadísticas de género”- Departamento de Estudios Sociales. http://www.ine.cl/
filenews/files/2011/julio/pdf/desarrollo_de_estadisticas_de_genero.pdf
INE-National Health Ministry (MINSAL): “INFORME 1 - Proyecto Encuesta Uso del Tiempo” 2007.
http://ucsas.minsal.cl/Documentos/PDF/Proyecto%20encuesta%20piloto 070306%20Informe%20
Reunion%20EUT.pdf
INE: “Encuesta Experimental sobre Uso del Tiempo en el Gran Santiago. Antecedentes Metodológicos
y Principales Resultados” Department of Social Studies. http://www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/
estadisticas_sociales_culturales/encuesta_tiempo_libre/pdf/presentacion_eut_17_04_2009.pdf
Colombia
(2012)

National Statistics Department (DANE) Mónica Correa, Encuesta Nacional de Uso del Tiempo
ENUT Colombia 2012. Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the
Andean community, Peru, 11 to 23 April 2012. (Presentation) http://www.google.com.uy/
url?sa=trct=jq=esrc=ssource=webcd=2ved=0CCcQFjABurl=http%3A%2F%2Festadisticas.
comunidadandina org%2Feportal%2Fcontenidos%2Fimagenes%2Ffile%2Freunioncan%2
Fdocumentos%2FPresentaci%25C3%2583%25C2%25B3n_ENUT_Colombia-CAN.
pptei=MmQ5UOyNBMnw6wGrs4HICgusg=AFQjCNHkGgzMfN_gA79aEzNielsW5pErywsig2=
MhVrfKua8noLylz_VFcyGg
National Statistics Department (DANE), Medición de trabajo no remunerado: Encuesta de Uso de Tiempo
en el DANE (2011 – 2013). (Presentación) http://www.dane.gov.co/files/noticias/uso_tiempo_freire.pdf
Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean community, Peru, 11 to 23 April
2012. (Document) http://estadisticas.comunidadandina.org/eportal/contenidos/1906_8.pdf

Costa Rica
(2011)

INEC Costa Rica, Experiencias Metodológicas de la Encuesta Uso sobre Tiempo Gran Área Metropolitana
at the 10th international meeting of experts on surveys of time use and unpaid work, Mexico 2012.

Cuba
(2001)

National Statistics Office (ONE), Encuesta sobre Uso del Tiempo, Cuba, 2002. (Report) http://www.one.
cu/publicaciones/enfoquegenero/tiempo/eut.pdf

Dominican
Republic
(2007)

Centre for Social and Demographic Studies (CESDEM), Encuesta Demográfica y de Salud 2007. Informe
Preliminar, Dominican Republic, 2007. (Report) http://www.cesdem.com/html/endesa_2007_informe_
preliminar.pdf

Ecuador
(2012)

Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean community, Peru, 11 to 23 April
2012. (Document) http://estadisticas.comunidadandina.org/eportal/contenidos/1906_8.pdf
Pérez. Alba, Presentación Encuesta Uso del Tiempo, Ecuador, 2007.

El Salvador
(2011)

Ministry of Economy, General Directorate of Statistics and Census . http://www.minec.gob.sv/index.
php?option=com_contentview=articleid=201:digestyccatid=1:noticias-ciudadanoItemid=77

Guatemala
(2011)

INE, Uso del Tiempo en Guatemala Encuesta Nacional de Condiciones de Vida. ENCOVI 2011.

Honduras
(2011)

INE: http://www.ine.gob.hn/drupal/node/213

Mexico

INEGI: “Encuesta Nacional sobre el Uso del Tiempo. ENUT 2009. Síntesis metodológica”. http://www.inegi.
org.mx/est/contenidos/espanol/metodologias/encuestas/hogares/sm_ENUT2009.pdf

(2009)

Orlando Monzón, INE Guatemala, La Medicion del Trabajo No Remunerado en Guatemala 2011 at the
12 International Meeting on Gender Statistics, Mexico, 2012.

National Women’s Institute (INMUJERES), Las desigualdades de género vistas a través del estudio
del uso del tiempo Resultados de la Encuesta Nacional sobre Uso del Tiempo 2009, México, 2010.
(Document) http://cedoc.inmujeres.gob.mx/documentos_download/101184.pdf
National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) María Eugenia Gómez, Cuestionario de la Encuesta
Nacional de Uso del Tiempo 2009 México. At the Second International Seminar on Time-Use Surveys,
Brazil, 9 and 10 September 2010. (Presentation)

(continued)

90

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Annex 6 (concluded)
Country

Sources

Nicaragua
(1998)

National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), Informe general de la encuesta nacional de hogares
sobre medición de nivel de vida (EMNV’98), Nicaragua, 1998. (Report) http://www.inide.gob.ni/bibliovirtual/
publicacion/informemnv98.pdf

Panama
(2011)

INEC Panama. 10th International Meeting of Experts on Surveys of Time Use and Unpaid Work, Mexico 2012.

Peru
(2010)

National Statistics and Informatics Institute (INEI), Ministry for Women and Social Development (MIMDES),
Encuesta Nacional de Uso del Tiempo 2010. Principales resultados, Peru, 2011.(Report) http://www.inei.
gob.pe/biblioineipub/bancopub/Est/Lib0960/libro.pdf
Second meeting of government experts on time-use surveys of the Andean community, Peru, 11 to 23 April
2012. (Document) http://estadisticas.comunidadandina.org/eportal/contenidos/1906_8.pdf

Uruguay
(2007)

National Statistics Institute (INE), Faculty of Social Sciences (FCS), Uso del tiempo y trabajo no remunerado
en el Uruguay. Módulo de la Encuesta Continua de Hogares, Septiembre, 2007”, Uruguay, 2008. (Report)
http://www.ine.gub.uy/biblioteca/uso%20del%20tiempo%202007/Documento%20Uso%20del%20Tiempo%20
y%20Trabajo%20no%20remunerado.pdf

Venezuela
(Bolivarian
Republic of)
(2011)

National Statistics Institute (INE), Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), I Encuesta del Uso del Tiempo para
Venezuela, Venezuela, 2011. (Presentation) http://www.ine.gov.ve/documentos/NotasdePrensa/EUT_
Presentacion_Rueda_Prensa.pdf

Source: Prepared by the authors from country information available on the web.

91

ECLAC – Series Gender Affairs Nº 122

Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean...

Series
Gender Affairs
Issues published
A complete list as well as pdf files are available at
www.eclac.org/publicaciones
122. Surveys on time use and unpaid work in Latin America and the Caribbean: experience to date and challenges
for the future, (LC/L.3678), 2013.
122. Las encuestas sobre el uso del tiempo y el trabajo no remunerado en América Latina y el Caribe: caminos
recorridos y desafíos hacia el futuro, (LC/L.3678), 2013.
121. Las relaciones de género entre la población rural de Ecuador, Guatemala y México, (LC/L.3561), 2012.
120. Protección social y redistribución del cuidado en América Latina y el Caribe: el ancho de las políticas,
(LC/L.3560), 2012.
119. La utilización de las encuestas de uso del tiempo en las políticas públicas, (LC/L.3557), 2012.
118. Políticas públicas e institucionalidad de género en América Latina (1985-2010). (LC/L.3531), 2012.
117. La población uruguaya y el cuidado: Persistencias de un mandato de género. Encuesta nacional sobre
representaciones sociales del cuidado: Principales resultados, (LC/L.3530), 2012.
116. Protección social y trabajo no remunerado: Redistribución de las responsabilidades y tareas del cuidado.
Estudio de caso Costa Rica, (LC/L.3519), 2012.
115. Protección social y trabajo no remunerado: Redistribución de las responsabilidades y tareas del cuidado.
Estudio de caso Ecuador, (LC/L.3518), 2012.
114. Inventario de la información estadística, indicadores y explotación de fuentes sobre etnia, raza y género
en los países de América Latina y el Caribe, (LC/L.3441), 2012.
113. Enquêtes auprès des ménages en Haïti et perspective de genre (1999-2005), (LC/L.3442), 2012.
112. Cuidado y subjetividad: Una mirada a la atención domiciliaria, (LC/L.3417), 2012.
111. Medición de los ingresos monetarios individuales: Una mirada desde la perspectiva de género, (LC/L.3440), 2012.
110. Una mirada analítica a la legislación sobre interrupción del embarazo en países de Iberoamérica y el Caribe,
(LC/L.3417), 2011.
109. Programas de transferencias condicionadas de ingreso e igualdad de género ¿Por dónde anda América Latina?,
(LC/L.3416), 2011.
108. La paridad política en América Latina y el Caribe. Percepciones y opiniones de los líderes de la región,
(LC/L.3407), 2011.
107. Uso del tiempo de mujeres y hombres en Colombia. Midiendo la inequidad, (LC/L.3298–P), N° de venta:
S.11.II.G.19, 2011.
106. Honduras: una aproximación a la situación de las mujeres a través del análisis de los indicadores de género,
(LC/L.3283–P), N° de venta: S.11.II.G.8, 2011.
105. Agendas legislativas y parlamentarias para el desarrollo de los derechos de las mujeres en América Latina
y el Caribe, (LC/L.3234–P), N° de venta: S.10.II.G.36, 2010.

92

122

gender affairs

ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
COMISIÓN ECONÓMICA PARA AMÉRICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE
www.eclac.org


</dcvalue>
</dublin_core>
