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. 2022 Jun 4:49:101479.
doi: 10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101479. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Gendered time use during COVID-19 among adolescents and young adults in Nairobi, Kenya

Anaise Williams  1 , Shannon N Wood  1   2 , H Colleen Stuart  3 , Grace Wamue-Ngare  4   5 , Mary Thiongo  6 , Peter Gichangi  6   7   8 , Bianca Devoto  1 , Michele R Decker  1   2
Affiliations

Gendered time use during COVID-19 among adolescents and young adults in Nairobi, Kenya

Anaise Williams et al. EClinicalMedicine. .

Abstract

Background: Gender disparities in time use contribute to poor outcomes in women. Large-scale disruptions can affect time use. The objectives of this study were to characterize time use across the pandemic by gender and to assess how gender associates with 2021-time use, overall and by 2020 economic dependency status.

Methods: A prospective cohort of youth in Nairobi, Kenya, completed phone-based surveys in August-October 2020 and April-May 2021. Time use was characterized at both time points and 1,777 participants with complete time use data at both time points were included in the analysis. 2021-time use was regressed on gender and stratified by 2020 economic dependency status.

Findings: At both time points, significant gender differences in time use found young men with more time on paid work and less time on domestic work [1·6 h; 95% CI: 1·1, 2·2] and [-1·9 h; 95% CI: -1·1, -1·5], respectively; 2021. In adjusted models, the gender differential in unpaid domestic work were significant overall and at all levels of economic dependency (dependent, semi-dependent, independent). The gender differential in paid work was evident among semi-dependent and independent.

Interpretation: Young women spent less time on paid work and more time on domestic duties than male counterparts, consistently across a six-month period during the pandemic, suggesting gendered time poverty. Resulting gendered gaps in earnings can contribute to women's longer-term economic vulnerability.

Funding: This work was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [010481].

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Conflict of interest statement

None to declare.

Figures

Fig 1
Figure 1
Caption: The figure depicts prevalence of pandemic-induced household economic shock by gender and economic dependency status. The y-axis is percentage of respondents who report their household experienced pandemic-induced economic shock, measured in 2020 as any household member (including the participant) having any disruption to formal or informal income generation due to COVID-19 restrictions. White bars signify overall prevalence, black bars signify prevalence for men, and gray bars signify prevalence for women; bars are separated out by the full sample, dependents only, semi-dependents only, and independents only. Correlations are reported below the bar chart. Using Pearson's correlation coefficient for categorical (full sample) and tetrachoric coefficient for binary (by economic dependency status), we report the correlations between status and household shock among both men and women, among women only, and among men only. P-values for the correlations are noted as: *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.
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