(70) (20) (ID (100) Meal preparation 17.9 2.3 2.4 22.5 (79) (10) (10) (100) Clothes care 15.3 0.1 1.5 16.9 (90) (1) (9) (100) Child care 17.9 1.3 1.9 21.1 (84) (6) (9) (100) Cleaning 6.1 0.8 1.8 8.7 (70) (9) (21) (100)
Fetching water and collecting firewood 1.5 1.2 1.5 4.2
(38) (29) (34) (100) Total 61.5 6.4 9.6 77.4 (79) (8) (12) (100) Number of cases 33 33 143 B. Employed mothers Shopping 4.0 0.8 0.2 4.9 (80) (15) (3) (100) Meal preparation 15.8 3.8 2.9 22.6 (70) (17) (12) (100) Clothes care 10.2 0.1 1.5 11.9 (86) (0) (12) (100) Child care 7.4 1.7 1.5 10.6 (69) (16) (14) (100) Cleaning 6.0 0.6 1.6 8.2 (73) (6) (19) (100)
Fetching water and collecting firewood 1.0 1.7 1.3 4.1
(25) (42) (32) (100)
Total 44.5 8.7 9.1 62.3
(71) (14) (15) (100)
Number of cases 109 109 444
Source: Laguna data set, 1985
Notes: Figures in parentheses are percentages of the households' number of hours devoted to domestic work
Total may not to 100 due to rounding
The differences in the number of hours devoted to total domestic work and the component activities, except fetching water and collecting firewood, were statistically significant between household members at a = 0.01.
The percentage of the total time contributed by children to domestic work increased with the employment of the mother. However, a reduction in mother's time rather than an increase in children's time was mainly responsible for this change. The proportion of time increased from 12 per cent if mothers were non-employed to 15 per cent if mothers were employed, but the absolute number of hours remained stable (Table 5.1). The proportion of time was only included in the first table to emphasize that the proportion of time does not really reflect the sharing of housework.
Figure 5.1 Mean number of hours (per week) that household members devoted to domestic work by mothers' employment status, Laguna, Philippines, 1985
Mother*' employment ttatu*
H Non-employed CH Employed
Mother Father Children Household members
Source: Table 5.1
As expected, mothers (whether employed or not) were the principal workers in all components of domestic work, except fetching water (Figure 5.2). For instance, 90 per cent of the households' time spent on washing, ironing and mending
clothes was by non-employed mothers. The percentage was slightly lower (86 per cent) for employed mothers. One-way analysis of variance shows that children rather than fathers assisted mothers. If a mother was non-employed, children contributed a significantly higher number of hours to child care than their father, and if the mother was employed the children spent more time washing and ironing clothes than their father.
The activity in which fathers contributed most was cooking, irrespective of mothers' employment status. Fathers' time inputs to cooking increased by 65 per cent, that is, more than two hours per week to nearly four hours, if mothers were employed. As expected, fathers’ share of washing and ironing clothes, a traditionally female activity in the Philippines, was almost nil. Cooking was also the activity to which children contributed most time, irrespective of mothers' employment status. However, the time devoted to the different aspects of children's domestic work was not significantly different when examined by mothers' employment status.
This study also confirms the findings of previous studies (Walker and Woods, 1976; Vanek, 1974; Coverman, 1985) that the participation of mothers in market activities resulted in lower overall levels of time allocated to households' domestic activities (Figure 5.1). This was largely the result of the large reduction in child care time devoted by employed mothers (Figure 5.2). Fathers and children did not contribute significantly to child care, even when mothers were employed.
Does this mean that among all the components of housework, child care could be most easily reduced or compressed if mothers worked in the market? If not, who was responsible for looking after the children? Perhaps neighbours or nearby relatives minded the children. A study in the Export Processing Zone in the Philippines (Feranil, 1982: 10) showed that 72 per cent of employed mothers entrusted their young children to parents, in-laws and other relatives. However, this
Figures 5.2 Mean number of hours (per week) that household members devoted to
components of domestic work by mothers' employment status, Laguna,
Philippines, 1985 a. Non-employed mothers 1 2- H o i o- ii r 8 - i f c - Mother Fither Children
I—_^
Shopping Meal prepan tiedClothes Child care Cleaning Fetching
care water and
collecting
Component! of domestic work firewood
b. Employed mothers
isY
16- 14- 12- H o 10H u r 8 s 6 4- 2- ShoppingU11^ IbJ yj-rfll
Mother Father Children Cleaning Fetching water and collecting Components of domestic workissue cannot be examined in this study as no questions were asked concerning help from neighbours and friends when mothers were employed. Another explanation could be that the mothers participated more in income-earning activities only when their children were already older and less in need of care. The percentage of mothers who engaged in market activities was substantially lower when infants (0-2 years old) were present in the households (Figure 5.3). Only 17 per cent of mothers with infants were employed compared to 59 per cent of women whose youngest children were seven years or older. A detailed discussion of the effect of the presence of infants on market work of all household members is presented in the next chapter.
The findings in this and in the succeeding sections should be interpreted with caution because of the methodology used in the data collection, as well as the small sample size. The small differences in the number of hours devoted to different activities might be because of memory lapse, although there is no reason to believe that there were systematic differences in recall ability.
Figure 5.3 Age of the youngest child by mother's employment status, Laguna, Philippines, 1985 (percentage)
8 0 - p 7 0 J e 6 0 - 5 0 - c □ 7+ ■ 3-6 ■ 0- 2 e 4 0 - n t 3 0 - 2 0- 1 0- 0
Non-em ployed Employed
Source: Appendix Table 5.1
5.2.1 Children's gender, age and domestic activities
The average number of hours devoted to domestic work by children in section 5.2 was computed for all children five years old or over. The mean time allocated to domestic activities does not reflect the separate contributions of males and females, but literature on the value of children has consistently demonstrated the existence of a gender division of domestic labour among children. Among Filipinos, the traditional division of labour is manifested early in life and is reinforced in school where girls attend home economics classes while boys attend carpentry and practical arts classes (Pineda, 1981: 106). Another issue that was not captured in the earlier analyses in this study was that as children grow older not only does their share of the many onerous and routine duties necessary for the maintenance of the households increase, but their monetary contributions also increase. Therefore, this section focuses on children’s time allocation by sex and age. Comparisons of the time use of male with female children is confined only to the present section so as to avoid the complexity of analysis that would arise when all the other household members were included in the intrafamilial allocation of domestic labour.
This section is divided into three parts. The first investigates the number of hours devoted by sons to domestic work, according to their age and mothers' employment status, followed by a consideration of daughters' time allocation. The final part compares children's time allocation according to sex and age group in order to show how early sex stereotyping of domestic work occurs.