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Inequality in the Mexican household has stagnated in the last five years

2020-10-09T02:17:45.398Z


Women spend 24 hours a week more than they do on housework, a figure that has barely changed since 2014A woman cooking in Oaxaca, on August 19.Nayeli Cruz Time passes and the inequality between men and women seems unchanging in Mexico, especially indoors, with regard to household work, where they spend 24 and a half hours more a week than their peers. In general, women work 6.2 hours a week more, but in housework the difference is enormous. The care of children, the elderly or the disabled also co


A woman cooking in Oaxaca, on August 19.Nayeli Cruz

Time passes and the inequality between men and women seems unchanging in Mexico, especially indoors, with regard to household work, where they spend 24 and a half hours more a week than their peers.

In general, women work 6.2 hours a week more, but in housework the difference is enormous.

The care of children, the elderly or the disabled also continues to be eminently feminine, since they double or triple, depending on the case, the time their partners spend caring for the family.

The survey for 2019 prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) and the Institute for Women barely shows any differences with respect to the 2014 survey, if only a “tiny” advance.

"The overload in these tasks that women endure" limits their access to the paid labor market and therefore their economic independence, "said the president of Inmujeres, Nadine Gasman on Thursday. Finally, what happens at home also weighs on her. equity out of it.

Gender inequality, that is, the performances that culture and tradition assign to women and men, still have an inordinate weight in Mexican society.

This is clearly observed when the results appear disaggregated by the main occupation, whether men or women.

The gap is large between the sexes when both are working outside the home.

They continue to complete their weekly paid workday with another 26 domestic hours compared to the 11 that men dedicate.

They do not feel concerned with household chores, the survey seems to say.

Hence the high price that the economically independent woman is paying.

But the difference in hours is even more pronounced when both spouses are at home without paid employment.

It would seem that in that situation they could collaborate more in cleaning or caring for children and the elderly, but this is not the case.

Surprisingly, the difference is even greater, probably because it occurs in populations with less education and more influenced by traditional roles.

The housewife then allocates 32 hours of work compared to 12 for the master of the house.

What do these men do?

Edgar Vielma, director of Sociodemographic Statistics at Inegi, goes to a classic image.

"Maybe they're on the couch watching TV with beer in hand," he says.

"They consider that these trades are not their thing."

Or maybe they work in the fields for the subsistence of the home but nobody pays them for it.

When gender roles are marked, men tend to consider their job to be that of a provider, Vielma also explains, that is, to bring their livelihood home.

If that does not happen, due, for example, to an economic crisis and the loss of employment, the man transfers to the home "his position of boss" or simply becomes bitter because he is emasculated and will not work in what he does not understand proper to his sex .

In both cases the situation is complicated and can lead to conflict and violence.

The survey that Inegi and Inmujeres presented this Thursday was carried out between October 21 and December 1 of last year in 26,631 homes and more than 712,000 people over 12 years old, therefore their results also reveal what is happening among adolescents, young people and retirees.

The physical scope encompasses urban, rural and indigenous populations.

The majority of men declare that they collaborate at home (95.7%) but the hours they dedicate deflate expectations: 11.6 per week compared to 30.8 of women.

And there is no statistically significant difference with what happened in 2014.


Regarding the care of the children, mothers practically double the dedication time.

And now with the pandemic they have added a new job, "that of teachers," Gasman said.

Although the Inegi has not questioned about this period, there are some surveys that reveal that those who have faced home studies of confined children have been, in more than 90% of cases, mothers.

Only in some sections in which they have been consulted, for example in the maintenance of the home, that is, I change a light bulb that has burned out, fix a door that does not close well or repair a leaky pipe, is where men bend the time they spend in front of their partners.

And in the work of support to other households and volunteer is where the men close the blushing gap of inequality a little.

But you don't have to throw the bells on the fly, because, according to Vielma, that statement includes, for example, the transfers of elderly parents to the doctor or of children to school, just what grabs them on the way to school. job.

But the washing machine that Lupita puts on it.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-10-09

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