Caren Grown, Aletheia Donald, and Greg Seymour each contributed to the virtual seminar Beyond time poverty: measuring women’s and men’s time-use agency in Malawi on May 22, 2024 This seminar focused on results from the testing of the MAGNET time-use agency survey module in Malawi, which was implemented alongside traditional time-use data collection. Greg Seymour presented the concept of time-use agency, or an individual’s ability to choose how their time is spent, as distinct from mere time-use. The primary objectives of the study, once the time-use agency tool had been developed, were to explore men’s and women’s ability to reallocate their time, and to learn what the new MAGNET tool can capture regarding time use and empowerment, that is missed in surveys which only ask how much time individuals spend on activities.
The results from Malawi suggest that women are significantly more likely than men to spend their time on activities which are inflexible, meaning that the individual is unable to choose whether or when to do the activity. This inflexibility cannot be directly explained by gender norms surrounding care and domestic work responsibilities, as other activities, such as transport, leisure, and eating/drinking, are also inflexible for women. One result of this dynamic is that women who report greater inflexibility are more likely to be unpaid contributing family members, and are less likely to be underemployed (i.e., would have liked to work more hours) or looking for work. The primary takeaway from the results presented was that women have less ability to reallocate their time than men. Greg Seymour’s presentation was followed by an open discussion.
International Food Policy Research Institute