The latest 2024 National Survey on Time Use (ENUT) by INEGI reveals a reality that has marked generations: women in Mexico work more hours per week than men, combining paid work with the invisible burden of domestic and care work.
On average, women spend 61.1 hours per week on productive and unpaid activities, while men spend 58.0. The difference seems minimal: 3.1 hours more. However, this gap translates into accumulated fatigue, less leisure time, and greater limitations on personal and professional development.
States with the largest gender gap in the workplace
Inequality is not uniform across the country. According to the data, Oaxaca leads the list with an 8.4-hour difference, followed by Guerrero and Nayarit with 7.1 hours.
In contrast, in states like Quintana Roo (-0.4 hours) and Yucatán (-0.2 hours), the trend is reversed: there, men spend more time than women.
The Invisible Burden: Domestic and Care Work
One of the most striking findings is the time women spend on unpaid domestic and care work:
21.5 hours more per week than men on housework.
9.4 hours more on caring for children ages 0 to 5.
5.3 hours more on caring for people who are sick or have disabilities.
In contrast, men spend 9.1 hours more on paid work for the market, reflecting a still deeply rooted division of roles.
Gaps in Vulnerable Groups
The difference is even greater in specific sectors:
23.2 hours more for women who speak indigenous languages.
21.0 hours more in localities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
16.4 more hours among the Afro-descendant population.
13.2 more hours among women with a disability.
These figures show that inequality increases when it intersects with other vulnerability factors.
Study, Leisure, and Socializing
Among adolescents aged 12 to 19, women participate more in educational activities (74.2%) than men (68.7%), spending an average of 1.6 more hours per week studying.
In the areas of leisure and socializing, men participate more in almost all activities, except for family and socializing, where women account for 78.6% of the total compared to 72.8% of men.
A Pending Challenge
The gender employment gap in Mexico is not only measured in income or formal employment, but also in the invisible hours that millions of women contribute each week without recognition or remuneration.
The INEGI report is a reminder that the country still faces a structural challenge: redistributing caregiving and domestic work responsibilities to ensure true equality.
Source: laverdadnoticias
