Gender, Time use

Overview

As you have presented NTA results to various audiences around the world, you may have received questions like these:

• Where are time transfers in your transfer framework?
• Can you show age profiles for men versus women?

Right now, we cannot answer either question adequately. Showing NTA profiles by gender would likely make women appear to contribute far less than men. However, we know women contribute a great deal to their families and communities, but often in ways that are not monetized and thus not a part of the current NTA framework. And the absence of time transfers means that we cannot truly assess the cost of caring for children and the elderly. Adding time use and gender aspects to NTA addresses these issues and gives a complete picture of economic activity. Our goal is to develop a standard NTA methodology to incorporate an understanding of gender, non-market work and time transfers into all NTA research.

The working group is coordinated by Gretchen Donehower of the US NTA team. Through an email list, we stay in touch to share progress and discuss challenges. Please email Gretchen to be added to the list, or if you have results to share or any other information that would be of interest to the group.

Comparative Template

The following file is a draft of a template for us all to report NTTA results. The spreadsheet also includes a methodology review, instructions, internal validity checks, and a place to document the estimates.

NTTA Reporting Template

This one is a summary template, with fewer sub-profiles requested. It also has a tab to chart the profiles for review.

NTTA Simplified Reporting Template

Please send comments, corrections, and suggestions to Gretchen. After some more time to review and improve the template, we will have space to upload completed reporting templates here for review.

Methodology

New version of methodology, as of July 2018, for NTA by sex and NTTA are here, but it is more general and leaves out discussion of pending issues:

Methodology, NTA by Sex and NTTA

Previous version from June 2013:

Incorporating Gender and Time Use into NTA, Version 4

Please email any comments or use the comment box below.

• Simplified example spreadsheets:

• Simplified Method

• Complex Method (Be sure to start with the "README" tab for explanatory notes.)

• Stata code examples (time units only):

• Sample Stata Code from US Case, Version 2 The time use survey is a 24-hour time diary survey with one time use respondent per household.

• Sample Stata Code from Senegal Case The time use data is from activity-based questions where the respondents were asked if they performed the activity in the past week, how many days they performed the activity, and how many hours on the days they did perform the activity.

• Sample Stata Code from Ghana Case The time use data is from a 24-hour time diary with multiple respondents per household. The data is freely available on the web here: http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/nada/index.php/catalog/53

AGENTA work on NTTA

The European countries involved in the AGENTA project have put together NTTA estimates for many countries. They have also written up an extensive technical document on the NTTA methodology. Note that some of the methods described are specific to the case of the European time use data available, but the overall description of the approach, methods, and methodological issues is very thorough. The data and technical document is linked here: http://witt.null2.net/shiny/agenta/#tab-4552-2 (click on the "NTTA Data Explorer" link at the top of the page). A direct link to the methodology document is here: http://www.agenta-project.eu/Jacomo/upload/publications/d-2.3-submitted.pdf .

Milestones (from earliest to most recent)

• At the 7th Global NTA Workshop in June 2010, a working group formed to discuss adding time use and gender to NTA. We developed an outline of research steps, pending questions, and a reading list for those interested in learning about time use research. Note from this workshop are available here: Research Outline and Reading List. After those meetings, a research plan titled NTA and Gender was drafted to discuss the issues, ongoing research, and long- and short-term goals.

• A smaller group of participants met in Berkeley in June 2011 to discuss integrating research measuring the value of unpaid household work and time transfers with NTA's age perspective. Presentations from those meetings are available here: First NTA Workshop on Gender and Time Use. The workshop resulted in a first draft of methodology to estimate gender-specific NTA age profiles and to add a set of satellite accounts based on time spent in productive activities outside of the market economy: Incorporating Gender and Time Use into NTA, Version 1.

• At the 8th Global NTA Workshop in December 2011, several countries shared preliminary results on Gender and Time Use topics. Those presentations can be viewed here: 8th NTA Workshop. Gender and time use results were presented in session D on December 8th and session I on December 9th. Also, Gretchen gave a presentation at the end of the workshop to review progress and discuss next steps. Group discussion resulted in significant revision of the methodology and a new version of the methodology document was posted to this wiki page a few months after those meetings: Incorporating Gender and Time Use into NTA, Version 2

• Training Workshop, May 2012: NTA Time Use and Gender Workshop Hanoi. Participants from Vietnam and India teams worked through the time use methodology and incorporated gender into market-based NTA estimates. Presentation slides, sample code, and other materials are available at the workshop link above. We gratefully acknowledge support for this workshop from IDRC through the Asian NTA study project "Intergenerational Transfers, Population Aging and Social Protection in Asia," implemented by NUPRI in collaboration with TDRI.

• Training Workshop, October 2012: NTA Time Use and Gender Workshop Montevideo. Researchers from seven Latin American country teams will participate in a condensed one-day workshop, with individual hands-on sessions afterwards, to introduce the time use and gender methods. Materials are available at the link above. With financial support from IDRC through the IDRC-ECLAC study project "Ageing and Development: NTAs in Latin American and the Caribbean," implemented by CELADE- Population Division of United Nations ECLAC.

• European NTA Workshop focused on Gender and Time Use, November 2012: Fifth European NTA Workshop. Many European country team members presented work on gender differences in paid and unpaid work. In addition, experts on gender and time use research from outside the NTA network were present and provided feedback on our methodology and results. This resulted in another revision of the methodology: Incorporating Gender and Time Use into NTA, Version 3. The following stata code file calculates the time use accounts for the US consistent with this methodology: Sample Stata Code from US Case.

• NTA9 in Barcelona, June 2013: Several papers were presented with preliminary results and the working group met and altered some aspects of the methodology.

• 2014: European NTA group includes Time Use and Gender work package in the AGENTA project; Counting Women's Work project funded to support Time Use and Gender NTA estimates in low- and middle-income countries.