The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) presented the results of the 2024 National Survey on Time Use (ENUT), which confirm the persistence of a wide gender gap in the distribution of labor in Mexico. According to the report, women spend 66.8% of their working time on unpaid activities, while men spend only 33.2%.
On average, the Mexican population worked 59.6 hours per week in 2024. However, women worked 61.1 hours, compared to 58.0 hours for men, reflecting a difference of 3.1 additional hours for women.
The disparity is most noticeable in unpaid work, which includes domestic, caregiving, and volunteer activities. Women spend an average of 39.7 hours per week, compared to 18.2 hours for men, representing a gap of 21.5 hours.
In contrast, men spend 9.1 more hours per week than women on paid work in the labor market.
Inequality in domestic and care work
The gap is even more pronounced in specific tasks. In domestic work, women spend 16.7 more hours than men. In caring for children aged 0 to 5, they spend 9.4 more hours, and in caring for people who are ill or have disabilities, they spend 5.3 more hours.
If passive caregiving is considered, that is, the time a person spends looking after another person while performing other activities, the gap widens considerably.
Women spend 33.4 hours per week on childcare, compared to 14.8 hours for men. In the case of caring for people with chronic illnesses or disabilities, women spend 23.8 hours, while men spend 13.1 hours.
Impact on Indigenous and Rural Communities
Gender inequality intensifies among vulnerable groups. Among the indigenous language-speaking population, the gap in total working hours reaches 27.3 hours per week. For those living in communities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, the difference reaches 26.4 hours.
The Afro-descendant population registers a gap of 16.4 hours, while women with disabilities face a difference of 13.2 hours compared to men.
At the state level, Oaxaca reported the largest gap, with 8.4 additional hours for women, followed by Guerrero and Nayarit with 7.1 hours. In contrast, in Quintana Roo and Yucatán, the gap slightly favors men, while in Tabasco, the gap was almost zero.
Implications and Public Policies
INEGI emphasized that these results provide input for the design of public policies with a gender perspective. The objective is to recognize and value unpaid domestic and care work, as well as to promote greater shared responsibility between women and men, in line with Target 5.4 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The organization emphasized that statistical information seeks to be a public resource that facilitates decision-making and lays the foundation for policies focused on improving the quality of life and promoting more equitable development in Mexico.
Source: msn
