The Fijian United Nations Development Programme, is considering putting a value to the time people use on unsalaried work. The latest report disclosed that women in Suva spend 58 hours a week doing housework, contrasted to men who only do eight hours.
The report also said that women in the tropical island nation of Vanuatu, voted the Happiest Country On Earth in 2006, have 25 %} less leisure time than males. (Who is kidding who, in such a male dominated society?)
The manager of the UNDP Pacific Centre, says “It’s important to provide separated out data about the different roles men and women play in the community, if the UNDP is to understand how a particular policy might impact differently on different genders”. Without this kind of information, the Centre believes it will be difficult to good policies or programs.
It’s official that people generally have 45 minutes more relaxation time, each day, than existed 40 years ago. Around half of that is used watching television says some experts. The average person in a Western nation devotes 2.5 hours per day to the have-a-break pastime of sprawling in front of the television.
This break down of an average person’s day to daily routine was published in 2006 from an unknown source.
ACTIVITY TIME SPENT BY GENDER, MARITAL STATUS
Men Women Married Single
Phone calls, mail, email 7 min 14 min 8 min 14 min
Caring for non-household 13 min 15 min 13 min 14 min
Religious, civic duties 16 min 21 min 20 min 17 min
Caring for family 20 min 43 min 45 min 7 min
Educational activities 28 min 26 min 7 min 51 min
Buying goods, services 38 min 8 min 53 min 43 min
Eating, drinking 1 hr18min 1hr11min 1hr24min 1hr8min
Household activities 1hr20 min 2hr16min 2hr8min 1hr26min
Work-related 4hr26min 3hr 4hr1min 3hr18min
Watching TV 3hr28min 2hr41min 2hr24min 2hr47min
Personal care, sleep 9hr13minutes 9hr37min 9hr8min 9hr46min
Then Harris Poll published these results following a nationwide phone survey, in 2004:
• 35% of adults favour reading.
• 21% would rather watch TV
• 20% spend time with their family and friends
Harris Poll reported these three activities as having been top of the list every year since 1995. However, it is thought that technology like the Internet clearly influences the use of our leisure time.
We have to question how these results were arrived at and their true ability present an overall depiction of how we live either in 2006 or 2009.
It certainly seems the more ‘time-saving-devices’ we are given, we increasingly find we have less and less time to do the things we would really like to do. Time is our most precious resource and must be used, guarded, cared for and used wisely, just as we consider the expenditure of any other of our resources.
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