HOME-BASED WORK,
GENDER AND TIME USE
Jouko NATTI1, Timo ANTTILA2, Tomi OINAS2
& Satu OJALA1
1 University of Tampere, School of Social
Sciences and Humanities, Finland
2 University of Jyväskylä, Department of Social
Sciences and Philosophy, Finland
Funded by Academy of Finland
INTRODUCTION
• Focus on paid work at home
– Increasing phenomenon, indicates changing
time-space relations of paid work
– Mixed findings in earlier studies
• Extent
– Different estimates (survey / diary data)
– Duration: part-time / full-time
– Timing: evening, weekend (Breedveld 2003)
Predictors
• Individual (family) factors
– Older age (Callister & Dixon)
– Family situation (spouse, children) (Golden
2008; Wight & Raley 2009)
• Home infrastructure
– Separate space at home (Tietze & Musson
2002; Kossek et al. 2006)
• Work characteristics
– High socioeconomic status, job autonomy
Time use consequences
• Working time
– Longer working hours (Callister & Dixon 2001)
– Commuting: no effect / shorter (Michelson &
Crouse 2002)
• Household work: minor effects
– Men: less time to childcare (Wight & Raley
2009)
• Leisure: minor effects
– Less social relations (Michelson 2002)
AIMS
• (1) The extent, duration and timing of paid work at
home among women and men.
• (2) The predictors of home-based work.
– Individual and family characteristics (age, children, and partner).
– Home’s infrastructure (internet connection at home, number of
rooms at home), and
– Work characteristics (socio-economic status, industry, and working
time autonomy),
• (3) The relationship of working at home to time use
– Assumptions: HBW is linked to the lengthening of working hours,
reduced commuting time.
– In addition, home-based work potentially increases time for
household work and child care, increases presence at home and
time with family and decreases time for social relations.
DATA AND METHODS
• Data
– Use of Time -study (2009-2010), collected by
Statistics Finland.
– Time use diaries (7.480 days)
– Focus on15-64 year old employees (n=3.382)
• Methods
– Descriptive: cross tabulation
– Multivariate: logistic regression (predictors)
and covariate analysis (time use)
1. EXTENT OF HOMEWORKING
• Interview data
– Only few (1% of men and 2% of women) said that
they work at home only (full-time)
– Working occasionally or partially at home was more
common (42% of men and 32% of women).
• Diary data
– Operationalization: combination of main activity
(paid work) and location (home)
– 7 % of men and 6 % of women worked (10+ min.) at
home during average diary day
• Results vary depending on the type of data.
– Focus on diary-based working at home.
Duration and timing
• Duration (home-based workers)
– Mean 122 min. (men), 139 (women);
– Distribution: 3+ hours 21 % (men), 24% women) (Fig.)
– Gender differences: longer hours among women
• Timing
– Weekly timing
• Weekdays 7-9 % (Monday 9-12 %; Friday 4 %)
• Weekends 6 % (Saturday 3-5 %, Sunday 6-8 %)
– Season: Spring 8-9 %; Summer 3-6 %
– Type of day: 9-10 % on working days, 5-6 % on
holidays, 3-4 % while being sick
– Minor gender differences
HBW: distribution of duration
Prevalence of paid work at home
among men and women during the day
(%, diary data, employees)
2. PREDICTORS OF HBW
• Individual-level factors
•
Age was classified into four groups (25-34, 35-44, 45-54, and 5564 years old).
– Living with a partner or without a partner was indicated by Family
status.
– Children were classified into two groups: no children at home, or
at least one child less than 18 years old at home.
• Home infrastructure factors (Household interview data)
• Internet connection (no, yes)
• Number of rooms at home (1-2, 3-4, 5 or more)
• Work-related factors
– Socio-economic status: manual workers, lower-level nonmanuals, upper-level non-manuals
– Industry (NACE classification): 8 sectors
– Working time autonomy was measured by asking respondents if
they can influence the starting and finishing times of their work by
at least 30 minutes (no, yes).
Age
Living with a partner
Children
Number of rooms at
home
Internet connection at
home
Socio-economic status
Industry
Flexible working time
Constant
Chi Square
-2LL
Nagelkerke R square
N
Men
Exp(B) (sig.)
Women
Exp(B) (sig.)
(ref. 15-29)
30-39
40-49
50-64
(ref. No)
(ref. No children)
(ref. 1-2)
,948
,924
1,075
1,235
1,101
1,087
1,226
1,322
1,091
,848
3-4
5+
(ref. No)
1,992
2,687*
1,001
2,284*
2,680*
1,127
Manual worker (ref)
Lower level white-collar
Upper level white-collar
(ref. Manufacturing and construction)
Wholesale and retail trade, hotels
Transport, communication
Finance, business activities
Public administration
Education
Health, social services
Other industry
(ref. Fixed starting and finishing
times)
*
1,940
2,441**
**
1,380
1,692
1,199
,749
7,009***
1,705
3,270
1,306
***
1,352
5,333***
*
1,168
,872
1,166
,661
2,706*
1,174
1,351
,871
,000
101,091
668,944
,162
1492
,007
109,426
787,677
,149
1874
3. HBW AND TIME USE
• In examining overall time use we apply
Robinson and Godbey’s (1997) classification of
the main categories of primary activities.
–
–
–
–
paid work,
committed time for household maintenance,
personal time devoted for self
free time activities.
• Covariate analysis: estimated time use by
comparison groups
– Covariates: day type, background factors (age,
partner, children, socioeconomic status)
Men
Women
Paid work at home
Paid work at home
NO
Contracted time
paid work
commuting
Committed time
household work
Construction, repairs and other
child care
shopping and household travel
Personal time
sleep
meals
groom
Education (adult)
Free Time
organizations
sports and exercise
culture and entertainment
reading
radio
television
socializing with family
socializing with friends
hobbies
other free time
free time travel
YES
298
271
27
159
49
48
18
43
615
493
77
45
4
354
5
40
5
27
3
128
6
39
53
15
33
Sig.
345 ***
319 ***
26
139
53
42
8 *
36
610
496
72
41
13
326
7
28
7
36
1
113
3
34
45
18
32
NO
YES
252
228
24
208
96
36
25
51
646
505
81
59
18
311
4
36
6
37
2
93
7
47
36
14
27
Sig.
285
273
12
241
120
43
40
38
608
491
66
51
24
277
2
33
4
40
2
95
8
28
36
13
17
***
***
***
*
*
***
***
*
*
*
DISCUSSION
• The extent of HBW is linked to the type of data
– Interview data: 34-43 %, diary data 6-7 %
• Changes over time: some increase in interview data, no change
in diary data (1999 > 2009)
–
–
–
–
Duration: Still supplementary (average: 2 hours per day)
Daily timing: morning, afternoon, evening (men)
Weekdays: high in Mondays, low in Fridays
Weekend days: high in Sundays, low in Saturdays
Predictors of HBW
• The role of individual and family (spouse,
children) characteristics minor
• Best predictors:
– work characteristics: high socioeconomic status
(women) and industry (men)
– and home infrastructure (space)
Time use consequences
• Working time and commuting: stretching working
hours
– Longer working hours both among men and women,
less commuting time among women
• Household activities: minor effects
– Women: home-based workers spent less time on
shopping and more time on child care (men less)
• Personal time: less time among women
– Women: home-based workers spent less time to
personal needs, especially to meals.
• Leisure: minor effects
– Women: home-based workers spent less time to
socializing with friends,
Limitations and strengths
• Limitations > further studies
– Diary data (minutes):
• Higher limit for HBW hours (now 10 min)
– Focus on employees
• Self-employed workers and freelancers missing
– Finnish data > comparative perspective
• Strengths
– Representative data
– Combination of interview and diary data
Thank you!
jouko.natti@uta.fi
Table 1. The extent (%) of paid work at home by
gender in the interview data (employees only)
(in parentheses 1999-2000 figures)
Men
Women
Paid work at home
- Work only at home
- Work sometimes or partly at home
- Does not work at all at home
Total
N
1 (1)
42 (35)
57 (64)
100
1500
2 (3)
32 (32)
66 (65)
100
1882
Motives (only home-based workers)
- Overtime
- Agreed (telework)
- Both
- Don't know
Total
N
46 (42)
41 (44)
14 (10)
0 (3)
100
107
39 (38)
45 (41)
13 (9)
0 (4)
100
121
Table 2. The extent (%) of paid work at home by gender in
the diary data (employed persons)
Proportion of those who have done paid work at home during
the diary days (%)
Weekday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
Weekend
- Saturday
- Sunday
Season of the year
- Winter (December-February)
- Spring (March-May)
- Summer (June-August)
- Autumn (September-November)
Type of the day
- Workday
- Sick
- Free day, weekend
- Holiday
- Other
Men
Women
9
12
9
8
8
4
6
5
6
7
9
6
7
7
4
6
3
8
7
9
6
7
8
8
3
7
10
3
1
5
9
9
4
1
6
5
Table 3. The duration (minutes) of paid work at
home by gender in the diary data
Men
Women
Duration of paid work at home (minutes)
- Those who have worked at home
122
140
Distribution of paid work hours at home (%)
-0
- 10-50 min
- 1-2 t
- 3+ t
93
3
3
1
94
2
2
2
Only those working at home
Distribution of paid work hours at home (%)
- 10-50 min
- 1-2 t
- 3+ t
38
41
21
39
37
24