Who Really Works More? Rethinking Working Time through a Gender Lens

29 July 2026

David is the CFO of a mid-sized manufacturing plant. His daily work hours stretch from 8am to 5pm, five days a week, with occasional overtime on weekends or if there are extra shifts. Because he is an executive employee, he doesn’t get paid more if he works more hours - but he earns a generous salary. He is responsible for corporate financial strategy, cash flow management, and financial reporting, most of which he can achieve during his 45-hour week. While his base salary is R2 million per annum, he adds an extra R500 000 in bonuses and benefits, rounding off his earnings to R2.5 million.

David’s wife, Susan, is a part-time primary school teacher. She works three days a week, from 8am to 2pm, for which she is paid R15 000 a month. Because she isn’t a full-time employee, she gets no bonuses and benefits. However, she does get paid leave when there are school holidays. For her 18-hour week work days, which involve teaching art to young learners, Susan earns R180 000 per annum. So she earns decidedly less than her husband - but she has a shorter working week, and she gets longer paid holidays (David’s paid annual leave is capped at 15 days per year).

On paper, it looks reasonable. David works longer hours, so he earns a bigger salary. Susan works less hours, so she earns a smaller salary - but she has more leisure time.

But does she really?

More working hours, more pay - but not for women

The reason Susan works part-time is because she and David have two children, aged five and eight. The youngest is in pre-school, which finishes early afternoon, while the oldest is at primary school, and has extramural activities such as sport and music. In order to coordinate her children’s schedule, Susan switched to part-time hours, reducing her salary from R35 000 to R15 000. She can use her “free” hours to transport her children, and also be available to help with school work and projects. She also uses these hours to clean the house and do shopping.

However, Susan’s day doesn’t end at 5pm, like her executive husband. That’s when things get even busier, as she has to prepare and serve the evening meal, get her children ready for bed, and clean up in the kitchen. On average, Susan probably finishes these chores by around 9pm.

And none of these jobs stop over the weekend - the children need to be cared for, meals need to be made, washing needs to be done, the house needs to be cleaned.

Susan is in effect working 13-hour days during the week, making it a 65-hour work week, with an extra 10 to 20 hours over the weekend - but she is only getting paid for an 18-hour work week. She has enquired about extending her teaching hours once the children are older, but has been informed that it is unlikely she will succeed - she has been on a fixed contract for too long, and the school would rather employ a new full-time teacher.

Unpaid work is “women’s work”

Women perform the vast majority of unpaid work due to a number of reasons including:

• Deep-rooted patriarchal traditions.
• Socialisation and gender roles.
• Systemic inequalities (such as a lack of affordable child care facilities).

Culturally, domestic tasks are most usually labelled "women's work”. For example, 75% of domestic work is carried out by women in Africa. According to OxFam International, women and girls are engaged in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid work every day. Furthermore, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says: “Women spend significantly more time on unpaid domestic duties. This invisible workload restricts time available for paid work and career advancement.” Additionally, while men's earnings often increase upon having children, “women’s earnings frequently decrease as a result of career interruptions and employer preconceptions about family responsibilities,” says the South African Journal of Industrial Psychology.

The ILO contends that While a growing segment of modern fathers are taking on more household and childminding responsibilities, the global division of domestic labour remains highly unequal, However, men that do take on these tasks face the same challenges as women.

Time poverty

There are additional burdens - much of women's unpaid work is invisible. Beyond household chores and caregiving, many women carry a mental load:

• Anticipating needs.
• Managing schedules.
• Organising family life.
• Providing emotional support .

This is work that often goes unrecognised but has a real impact on their time and opportunities.

When unpaid care consumes so much of the day, women have fewer opportunities to earn, learn, rest, or engage in their communities. The ILO states that globally, unpaid care responsibilities keep an estimated 708 million women out of paid employment, accounting for 45% of working-age women outside the labour force.

Women would rather have paid work

In 2016, the ILO and Gallup teamed up to ask women across the globe if they preferred to work in paid jobs, care for their families, or do both. The data showed that a staggering 70% of women - regardless of their employment status - would prefer to work in paid jobs. However, ten years since the survey, not much change has taken place.

Globally, women still perform the vast majority of unpaid domestic and care work, with the gender gap narrowing only marginally over the past decade. According to data from the ILO and UN Women, women performed roughly 3.2 times more unpaid care work than men in 2016. By 2026, despite extensive global dialogue and incremental policy reforms, women still perform 2.5 to 3 times more unpaid labor than men, translating to women spending approximately 2.3 to 2.8 hours more per day on these tasks.

The data is clear: women want to be in paid employment, but a persistent set of socio-economic barriers keep them out of the workforce. To bridge the gap, solutions include:

• Achieving equal pay.
• Tackling occupational segregation.
• Eliminating discrimination.
• Promoting work-life balance.
• Attention to unpaid work and social security.

Making working hours count

So who really works more? If we count only paid employment, the answer may seem straightforward. But once unpaid care, household work and the invisible mental load are included, the picture changes dramatically. Women's work has long been hidden in plain sight. Recognising its value is the first step towards creating a more equal world of work - one where every working hour of labour counts, whether it is paid or unpaid.