Women spend 20.2 hours per week on chores: ILO Vietnam
VOV.VN - Vietnamese women typically spend an average of 20.2 hours per week doing household chores, in contrast to men who only spend 10.7 hours on such tasks, according to data revealed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Vietnam.
“Close to one fifth of men did not spend any time on these activities at all,” ILO stated.
A new research brief conducted by ILO Vietnam indicates that the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has served to exacerbate existing inequalities, whilst also creating new gender gaps.
The report shows that more than 70% of the nation’s working-age women are in the labour force, in comparison to the global level of 47.2% and the average of 43.9% in the Asia-Pacific region.
Furthermore, the high participation of women within the local labour force should not be interpreted as a sign of equal opportunity.
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, both women and men had relatively easy access to jobs, but the quality of such jobs was on average lower among women than among men,” said Valentina Barcucci, labour economist and lead author of the research conducted by ILO Vietnam.
With a relatively high participation rate in the labour market, local women face multiple and persistent inequalities as they carry a disproportionate double burden of both work and family responsibilities.
According to the report compiled by the ILO, the impact of COVID-19 on the domestic labour market has served to widen existing inequalities, whilst also creating new ones. Before the pandemic hit, there was no clear difference between the unemployment rate among men and women, although a gap appeared from the third quarter of 2020.
“Gender inequality in the labour market is traced back to the traditional roles that women are expected to play, supported by social norms,” said Chang-Hee Lee, director of ILO Vietnam.
“While at the policy level, the 2019 Labour Code has opened opportunities to close such gender gaps, for example the retirement age or removing the ban on female employment in certain occupations, a much more difficult task still awaits Vietnam. That is changing the mindsets of Vietnamese men and women themselves, which will in turn influence their behaviours in the labour market,” he noted.
