A study from gender perspective on actual condition of sharing housework in Vietnam

The gender divide in the labor market in advanced economies % of women in the top 10% income group % of women in the top 1% income group Share of unpaid care work done by women lates

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THU HA

A STUDY FROM GENDER PERSPECTIVE

ON ACTUAL CONDITION OF SHARING

HOUSEWORK IN VIETNAM

MASTER'S THESIS

Hanoi, 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THU HA

A STUDY FROM GENDER PERSPECTIVE

ON ACTUAL CONDITION OF SHARING

HOUSEWORK IN VIETNAM

MAJOR: PUBLIC POLICY

CODE: PILOT

RESEARCH SUPERVISOR:

Prof Dr NAOHISA OKAMOTO

Dr BUI HAI THIEM

Hanoi, 2019

Acknowledgement

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisors Prof Okamoto Naohisa and Dr Bui Hai Thiem Prof Okamoto has patiently provided me with wholeheartly support during my internship in University of Tsukuba and insightful comments and comprehensive instruction Also, Dr Bui Hai Thiem has provided me useful information related to Vietnamese context and introduced me a number of gender experts for in-depth interviews Their guidance and support have greatly contribute to my Master thesis accomplishment

I also would like to give special thanks to Dr Nguyen Ngoc Anh, Director of the Development and Polices Research Center (DEPOCEN) for allowing me to use data

of time-use survey conducted by the Center in 2017

Finally, my sincere thanks also go to my colleagues at DEPOCEN, Mr Kentaro Takeda – my tutor at University of Tsukuba and Vietnam Japan University, especially the Master program in Public Policy for support during my thesis writing progress

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement i

List of tables iv

List of figure iv

List of abbreviations v

1 CHAPTER 1 – Background and Research Purpose 6

1.1 Background 6

1.2 Research purpose 11

2 CHAPTER 2 – Literature review 13

2.1 Researches on unpaid care work in the world 13

2.2.1 Understanding of unpaid care work/housework 13

2.2.2 Unpaid care work and the issue of gender inequality 14

2.2 Researches on unpaid care work in Vietnam 18

3 CHAPTER 3 – Methodology 20

3.1 Time use survey questionnaire 20

3.2 Quantitative data collection 22

3.3 Description of sample 23

3.4 Qualitative data collection 27

4 CHAPTER 4 – Main Findings 29

4.1 Time spending on doing housework 29

4.2 Time distribution on other rountine activities 37

4.3 Nexus between time spending on housework and life satisfaction 41

5 CHAPTER 5: Policy Implications 43

6 CHAPTER 6: Conclusion 48

REFERENCE LIST 50

ANNEX 1 – Time-use survey questionnaire 54

ANNEX 2 – Interview questions 62

ANNEX 3 – T-test (DEPOCEN time-use data) 63

List of tables

Table 1.1 The gender divide in the labor market in advanced economies 7

Table 2.1 Time spent in unpaid work and paid work, by sex of OECD countries 15

Table 3.1 Activity categories and code 20

Table 3.2 Characteristics of respodents 23

Table 3.3 Respondents by provinces and gender 27

Table 3.4 List of gender experts 27

Table 5.1 Differece in averange time on activity categories in female and male stata, by geography, marital status and income 40

Table 5.2 Respondents’ satisfaction level with the life by gender (%) 41

Table 5.3 Women’ satisfaction level with the life based on average time for homemaking (%) 42

Table 6.1 Vietnam’s legal framework for women’s rights and gender equality 43

List of figure Figure 1.1 Annual GDP growth in the period of 1986 to 2017(%) 8

Figure 4.1 Average time spent doing housework by gender and by nations (min) 30

Figure 4.2 Time spending on doing housework by gender and marital status (min) 31

Figure 4.3 Time spending on doing housework by gender and marital status (min) 32

Figure 4.4 Time spending on doing housework by gender and education level (min) 33

Figure 4.5 Time spending on doing housework by gender and income groups (min) 34

Figure 4.6 Time spending on doing housework by gender and urban-rural (min) 35

Figure 4.7 Time spending on doing housework by gender and urban-rural (min) 38

List of abbreviations

DEPOCEN Developement and Policies Research Center

GDP Gross domestic product

GSO General Statistics Office of Viet Nam

ILO The International Labor Organization

OECD The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development UNDP The United Nations Development Programme

1 CHAPTER 1 – Background and Research Purpose

inequalities is deemed as one of the most pertinent global challenges Numerous facts

show that we are living in “a world in which one percent of humanity controls as much wealth as the other 99 percent”(Address et al., 2019) For instance, since 2015,

the richest 1% has accumulated more wealth than the rest of the planet (Shorrocks, Davies, & Lluberas, 2016) Or, the incomes of the poorest 10% of the population has increased by less than $3 a year between 1988 and 2011, while the incomes of the richest 1% has increased 182 times as much (Hardoon, 2017) Under this context of growing inequality, it is recognised that women are likely to fall into the bottom half

of the income distribution for the lower opportunities prevalent for women to participate in the labor market than those for men (ILO, 2016) Women are also reported to earn between 31% to 75% less than men for equal work of equal value (UN Women, 2015) The World Economic Forum’s annual report in 2016 even estimates that it will take 170 years for women to be paid the same as men (World Economic Forum, 2016) According to recent statistics, even in advanced economies which have succeeded in eliminating gender disparities in education, men continue

to dominate high-income groups while women remain disproportionately responsible for carrying out unpaid housework in the home Furthermore, the wealth and income inequality trends become increasingly prominent internationally (Hardoon, 2017)

Table 1.1 The gender divide in the labor market in advanced economies

% of women in the top 10%

income group

% of women in the top 1%

income group

Share of unpaid care work done by women (latest year)

Note: Reprinted from OECD stat Employment: Time spent in paid and unpaid work,

by sex Retrived from Working-Paper-5 -Atkinson.pdf

http://www.lse.ac.uk/InternationalInequalities/pdf/III-Some studies ascertained that the primary factors causing the economic disparity between men and women are skill and qualification (Bryan & Sevilla-Sanz, 2011) And housework is listed as one of most significant factors explaining gender economic gap (Becker, 1985) Becker argues that housework causes women to spend less time on market work, lowering their investment in market human capital Indeed,

he claims that housework indirectly lowers the wage rate of women It could be said that the disparity becomes a concern for ‘gender justice’ not only because the tasks and the women who perform them are undervalued, but also because a disproportionately higher level of care work restricts personal growth and professional development (Marphatia & Moussié, 2013)

Viet Nam is located in the Eastern part of the Indochina peninsula, bordering China

to the North, Laos and Cambodia to the West Historically, Vietnam fell under the dominant rule of a series of Chinese dynasties for 1,000 years that resulted in the heavy influence of Chinese culture and ideology Subsequently, two bloody wars against French colonization and American War ruined and pushed the country into

utter misery and underdevelopment After gaining independence, and undergoing a succession of policies known as the “Doi Moi” which enabled the development of a market economy in 1986, Vietnam has undergone a vigorous change in both social and economic aspects Following over 30 years of reforms, Vietnam has spurred rapid socio-economic growth and attained a lower middle-income country status (2011 per capita income of US $1,260) (World Bank, 2013)

In terms of economic development, Vietnam’s growth rate has boomed under the impact of the economic intergration policies In general, Vietnam’s GDP rate increased from 2.8 percent in 1986 to 6.8 percent in 2017 while those figures of other lower middle-income economies are respectively 4.0 percent and 5.5 percent (see Figure 1.1) Between 2008 and the present day, despite the global economic crisis, Vietnam’s economic growth has still remained relatively stable with an annual GDP growth rate of around 6 to 7 percent

Figure 1.1 Annual GDP growth in the period of 1986 to 2017(%)

Note: Reprinted from World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National

Accounts data files Retrived from ilibrary.org/economics/data/oecd-national-accounts-statistics_na-data-en

https://www.oecd-Alongside the rapid economic development, the poverty rate has significantly decreased Vietnam is recognized as a good model of remarkable progress on poverty reduction by many reputable organizations such as the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) The poverty headcount in Vietnam fell from 60 percent in the early 1990s to 20.7 percent in 2010 based on the new poverty line (A new poverty line was estimated for 2010 by the General Statistical Office and World Bank that better reflects living conditions of the poor Based on the new poverty line (equal to VND 653,000/person/month or $2.25/person/day, PPP 2005) and updated monitoring system, the national poverty rate in 2010 is 20.7 percent vs an official poverty rate of 14.2 percent in 2010 using official MOLISA urban and rural poverty lines of VND 500,000/person/month and VND 400,000/person/month, respectively (World Bank, Poverty Reduction in Vietnam: Remarkable Progress, Emerging Challenges, 2013)), and only a mere less than 3 percent (equivalent to only 0.8 percent of Vietnam population) (The World Poverty Clock https://worldpoverty.io/index.html) living in extreme poverty using the old poverty line indicators (Extreme poverty refers to people living on less than US $1/90 per percent a day) In particular, the poverty decline among ethnic minorities during this period was the most impressive for the past two decades, down from 57.8% to 44.6% (World Bank, 2018)

The economic development led to an expansion of the middle-class and a more dynamic civil society It is reported that Vietnam has the highest increasing rate of middle-class people in Southeast Asia (Yew Heng Lim , Mariam Jaafar, n.d.) There were 8 million middle-class people in 2012 in Vietnam and this number is predicted

to increase to 44 million in 2020 and 95 million in 2030 (Niesel Analysis, it is number

of people who consume US $10 - $100 per person per day) with an income of 35,000 a year(Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living ASEAN, 2015) The existence

$5,000-of an already high and growing number $5,000-of middle-class citizens is expected to bring significant changes in economic and social development for Vietnam

Additionally, Vietnam has attained a higher level of educational achievement For example, due to policy of compulsory primary education, the literacy level has increased remarkably as the literacy rate of Vietnam in 2016 is 95 percent and the school enrollment at all levels has also increased significantly Although there are differences between males and females and between urban and rural areas, the gaps have narrowed significantly Consequentially, the labor force qualification levels have steadily improved as the percentage of trained employed workers aged 15 and above has increased over the years Following the higher qualified labor force, the productivity of human resources has also dramatically improved According to the GSO, the productivity of employed population has increased from 55.2 million dong per person in 2011 to 84.5 million dong per person in 2016

Although moving to a middle-income country oriented by the market economy has prompted a proliferation of job opportunities, women’s participation in the formal economy has declined since the reforms (Asian Development Bank, 2002) Tran and

Le (1997) have argued that the Doi Moi economic restructuring has resulted in the conceptualization of individual households as autonomous economic units, thereby reinforcing Confucian ideals about appropriate male and female roles within the household and society Whilst a series of government initiatives have promoted gender equality in certain areas, such as education and health care systems, this hasn’t translated into any progress in regards to female involvement in the labor market Indeed, Higgins (2015) and Tran (2004) have both recognized in their studies that although there have been considerable improvements in socio-economic aspects of women’s lives, gender inequality continues to inversely impact them According to the Global Gender Gap reports, Vietnam regressed from ranking 42 globally in 2007,

to 77 in 2018 (Saadia, Thierry, & Robert, 2018) Viet Nam is also recorded among a few countries in the world where the gender pay gap has been widening, while the gap in most other nations has declined In fact a 2 percent increase in the gap was recorded in Viet Nam between 2008-2011 (ILO, 2012) According to a report published by the World Bank, data from Vietnam’s Labor Force Surveys (LFS)

between 2011 and 2014 show that, on average, women earn VND 3,000,000 less than men annually Additionally, in both state and non-state, and agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, women earn less than men This income gap “is present across all age groups, widening around child-bearing age and spiking in the 55-59 age cohort, around retirement age for women (at age 55) (Chowdhury, Johnson, Mannava, & Perova, 2018) The report also revealed that female workers in Vietnam are, in fact, more likely to choose to work in lower paid occupations and industries that offer benefits like paid leave, health insurance, social insurance, and a formal contract

Furthermore, the authors of the report found the reason “why women would choose

such low paid occupations” to be the unequal distribution of household labor in

Vietnam Because they spend significantly more time than their male counterparts on

household work, women have less time to spend in a formal occupation, and are in greater need of those non-monetary benefits they have such a tendency to seek out in lieu of jobs that are higher paid

1.2 Research purpose

Although researches and reports on issue of unpaid housework in all over the world has provoked considerable debate amongst a scholars and politicians due to its implications for development policy, it is undeniable that it disproportionately affects women (Derock, 2019) In Vietnam, this issue is still a new sphere of knowledge requiring further study due to a lack of reliable standard data This paper is more advanced than a couple of previous studies in Viet Nam because it employs data from the first time-use survey in Vietnam that is a standard data used by OECD

The study aims to measure time spending on doing domestic works and care tasks carried by men and women in 5 provinces Then, it will examine impact of determinants including education level, income level, generation, marital status and geographical location (urban-rual) on women’s time doing housework Especially, it will find whether a nexus between time women spend on housekeeping and their life satisfaction level Finally, from findings of time-use survey data, several policy implications will be proposed under the Viet Nam context

Three main research questions that will be discussed in this paper are:

➢ How many minutes are there women and men spend on housework everyday?

• Whether is there impact of determinants including education level, income level, generation, marital status and geographical location (urban-rual) on time doing housework?

• What is impact of the burden of housework tasks on other daily activities?

➢ Whether is there a nexus between the time spent on housework and life satisfaction or not?

➢ Is there any policy gap in promoting gender equality in housework activities in Vietnam and recommendations to address this gap?

In order to answer those research questions above, four hypotheses are put forward

➢ Hypothesis 1: Regardless of geographical location, marital status, generation, income, and education level, women spend more time conducting household tasks than men

➢ Hypothesis 2: Geographical location, marital status, generation, income, and education level have impact on women’s time spending on doing housework

➢ Hypothesis 3: Due to the time burden of household tasks, women’s time available for personal care, working and relaxation is less than men

➢ Hypothesis 4: There is a nexus between the time spent on housework and life satisfactionn

2 CHAPTER 2 – Literature review

2.1 Researches on unpaid care work in the world

2.2.1 Understanding of unpaid care work/housework

Many economic theories were established without recognition of production, reproduction and service activities in the informal, subsistence, or household sectors For example, the “production boundary” first establisted by the United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA) in 1953 just counts all production if they are exchanged for money and unduplicated by intermediate products (United Nations, 1953) Then, in 1993, the UNSNA revised the concept of the production boundary that excluded the following domestic and personal services within households from measured production in national accounts They are (Statistical Commission of the United Nations, 1993):

(a) The cleaning, decoration and maintenance of the dwelling occupied by the household, including small repairs of a kind usually carried out by tenants as well as owners;

(b) The cleaning, servicing and repair of household durables or other goods, including vehicles used for household purposes;

(c) The preparation and serving of meals;

(d) The care, training and instruction of children;

(e) The care of sick, infirm or old people;

(f) The transportation of members of the household or their goods

The latest version in 2008 (Statistical Commission of the United Nations, 2008) still excluded all production of services for own final consumption within households Those excluded household production are:

(a) The production of agricultural goods by household enterprises for own final consumption;

(b) The production of other goods for own final use by households: the construction

of dwellings, the production of foodstuffs and clothing, etc.;

(c) The production of housing services for own final consumption by owner occupiers;

(d) The production of domestic and personal services for consumption within the same household: the preparation of meals, care and training of children, cleaning, repairs, etc

All things considered, housework that is discounted in the country’s GDP is defined

by the UNDP as unpaid work The are several reasons provided for excluding unpaid work in GDP such as: (i) a lack of data, (ii) unpaid work does not affect important factors such as employment and poverty, and (iii) a change in GDP accounting method would make it difficult to compare trends over time

2.2.2 Unpaid care work and the issue of gender inequality

It is factually apparent that women perform the majority of unpaid labor and domestic work globally This ‘unpaid work’ includes activities such as cooking, cleaning, looking after family members and voluntary community work (Elson, 2000) Many studies conducted in different regions and nations all over the world concluded that women spend between 2-10 times longer on unpaid work than men (OECD, 2014) For example, a study in Turkey 2016 found that women in this nation spend 6 times greater than men on domestic and care tasks, respectively 317 minutes and 51 minutes per day (Ertugrul, 2016) Another study conducted in Philippines Uganda and Zimbabwe revealed that on average women work more hours of household care responsibilities than men do, up to 11 to 12 hours per day (Rost & Koissy-Kpein, 2017) The following table provides statistics of the difference between gender time use pattern of OECD countries and 3 non-OECD countries Generally, the average time spent conducting unpaid work by women is higher than men, especially in Asian countries For example, Japan and Korea are two nations that have the largest amount

of difference between men and women on the time spent conducting unpaid work among OECD countries, as women spend 5 times more time than men Japan and Korea also are nations whose men spend the least amount of time doing housework,

on average less than one hour per day

Table 2.1 Time spent in unpaid work and paid work, by sex of OECD countries

Age Group 15-64

Indicator

Time spent in unpaid work,

by sex

Time spent in paid work, by sex

Time spent in total work, by sex Sex Men Women Men Women Men Women Unit Minutes per

day

Minutes per day

Minutes per day

Australia 171.6 311.0 304.1 172.0 475.7 483.0 Austria 135.3 269.2 364.8 248.8 500.1 517.9 Belgium 144.2 237.3 273.7 199.2 417.9 436.6 Canada 148.1 223.7 340.5 268.3 488.7 491.9 Denmark 186.1 242.8 260.1 194.6 446.2 437.4 Estonia 160.2 249.2 264.1 244.9 424.2 494.1 Finland 157.5 235.8 248.6 209.9 406.0 445.7 France 134.9 224.0 235.1 175.4 370.1 399.4 Germany 150.4 242.3 289.5 205.5 440.0 447.7 Greece 95.1 259.5 274.3 184.5 369.4 444.0 Hungary 162.3 293.8 272.7 202.5 435.0 496.3 Ireland 129.2 296.1 343.9 197.1 473.1 493.2 Italy 130.7 306.3 220.8 133.1 351.5 439.5

Latvia 129.7 253.3 376.9 288.5 506.7 541.7 Lithuania 151.6 292.0 354.3 279.3 505.9 571.2 Luxembourg 121.1 239.6 330.0 238.9 451.1 478.5 Mexico 136.7 383.3 485.9 250.1 622.6 633.4 Netherlands 145.4 224.9 284.9 201.4 430.4 426.4 New Zealand 141.0 264.0 338.0 205.0 479.0 469.0 Norway 168.5 227.4 277.4 200.0 445.9 427.4 Poland 158.8 295.0 314.8 203.2 473.6 498.2 Portugal 96.3 328.2 372.3 231.3 468.6 559.4 Slovenia 166.5 286.2 299.8 234.2 466.3 520.4 Spain 145.9 289.1 236.2 166.8 382.1 455.9 Sweden 171.0 220.2 313.0 275.2 484.0 495.3

Turkey 67.6 305.0 358.3 133.9 425.8 439.0 United Kingdom 140.1 248.6 308.6 216.2 448.7 464.8 United States 145.8 244.0 336.9 243.4 482.7 487.4

Africa 102.9 249.6 294.2 195.0 397.1 444.6

Note: Reprinted from Data extracted on 22 May 2019 08:32 UTC (GMT) Retrived

from OECD.Stat https://stats.oecd.org/index.aspx?queryid=54757#

Other studies then found that the unequal distribution of housework is related to the gender gap in economic opportunities and women’s income To be more precise, time spent doing housework is negatively correlated with participation in the labor market Despite perceptions that globalization has fostered a multitude of job opportunities, there has been a global decline in female labor force participation, dropping from 52.4% in 1995 to 49.6% in 2015 (ILO, 2016) Indeed, participation in the paid employment sector does not relieve women from them domestic duties Due to time constraints and family demands, paid employment is not a viable option for many women, which has resulted in many women sacrificing formal employment opportunities and dropping out of the labor market (Samantroy & Giri, 2015) A study

in Latin America and Caribbean countries found that over 50% of ‘inactive’ women between the ages of 20-24 referenced their domestic responsibilities as the reason why they didn’t work (Alfers, 2015) Those who attain formal employment have to undertake the ‘double burden’ of committing to formal employed work whilst fulfilling their domestic responsibilities, an impossible feat for many In this way, unpaid and domestic work inhibits women’s ability to fully participate in the paid economy (OECD, 2019) Additionally, as the burden of housework falls on the women’s shoulders, they tend to engage in part-time or informal employment that is accompanied by poor working conditions and is poorly paid (Hegewisch & Gornick, 2011)

From economic theory, housework was introduced as the set of factors explaining the gender wage gap firstly by Gary Becker since 1985 Firstly, Becker argued that housework causes women to spend less time on market work, lowering their investment in market human capital Indeed, he claimed that housework indirectly lowered the wage rate of women Secondly, assuming that unpaid housework is more effort intensive compared to other paid activities, that effort is fixed for each individual, and that earning in market work per hour depends on effort Becker proved that the more effort women spend on housework, the less effort they spend on market work, and the lower wage rate they earn, even when they spend the same amount of time in doing market work compared to men On this aspect, housework directly lessens the wage rate of those who spent more time/ effort on housework The lower wages caused by the two aforementioned channels would lead to lower investment

of an individual to his/ her market human capital in the future, resulting in an even lower wage rate in the long run (Becker, 1985)

Another study demonstrated that rather than affecting wages, housework is correlated with unobserved individual characteristics that have a negative effect on wages (Hersch & Stratton, 1994) In order to separate the relation of housework and wage rate in this channel from direct impacts of housework on the wage rate in Becker’s model, Hersch & Stratto used an estimation with instrumental variables and fixed effects models According to them, if there is a direct relationship between housework time and wage rate, the coefficient of housework time in explanation of gender wage gap will remain negative after controlling for endogeneity and individual-specific characteristics On the contrary, if unobserved characteristics are the determining factor, the observed negative correlation between wages and housework is spurious and will disappear when the wage-housework relation is correctly specified

The division of household labor also inhibits women’s political and social mobility

in public and private spheres (OECD, 2019) The dilemma of unpaid and domestic work has contributed to a plethora of debates on recognising the value and economic contribution of women’s work as well as the social and cultural factors which dictate

where women are socially located (Samantroy & Giri, 2015) The allocation of the majority share of domestic responsibilities to women is deeply rooted in power-laden gender binaries and cultural values which suggest women are naturally the primary caregivers Indeed, although gender is an ‘irreducibly social concept’ it has long been conceptualized as a ‘natural’ and ‘biological’ factor that characterizes an individual’s emotions and behaviors This depiction has long been used to sustain the patriarchal hierarchy and justify the domestic role prescribed to women within society

In summary, unpaid work is undoubtedly a crucial element of economic activity, and indispensable in upholding the well-being of individuals, their families and society (Stiglitz, Joseph E; Sen, Amartya; Fitoussi, 2008) Yet this issue remains frequently absent from policy agendas due to the fact that it is difficult to measure and thereby less relevant for policies (OECD, 2014) The root of this unequal distributrion could

be explained by socio-demgraphic and economic factors, but is mainly caused by entrenched stereotypes on gender roles of different social institutions (Jütting, Morrisson, Dayton‐Johnson, & Drechsler*, 2008) Hence, in order to narrow the unequal gap, the first step is to redistribute of responsibility for housework between women and men (OECD, 2014)

2.2 Researches on unpaid care work in Vietnam

Aware of the importance of gender issue, the Vietnamese government has issued dozens of legal documents and policies to promote gender equality In particular, the Vietnamese government has ratified a number of international agreements and conventions on basic human rights such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right (ICCPR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) These international commitments were fundamental for the development of the legal framework and national policies to address gender disparity

in Vietnam (GSO - WHO, National study on Domestic Violence against Women in Viet Nam 2010)

Nevertheless, there is little understanding about unpaid work and its impact on gender inequality in Vietnam Recently, there have been a couple international organizations that have launched studies to raise public awareness of gender imparity in housework distribution In particular, the ‘Unpaid Care Work’ research by ActionAid Vietnam shows that Vietnamese women spend over 5 hours a day conducting unpaid domestic work, compared to a mere 2 hours conducted by men (ActionAid International, 2016) Unpaid care work conducted in Vietnam is estimated to total 13 million working days per year When this time is valued, it is calculated that this work is worth is over 20%

of Vietnam’s GDP (Viet Nam News, 2016)

Another study conducted in 2017 by Tien revealed that women’s average time daily spent on unpaid housework is approximately 40.3-58.6 minutes more than men’s Moreover, this gap always exists regardless of working status, age, household sizes and income levels (Tien, 2017) It is noted that in this study, Tien used data extracted from two questions of the Vietnamese household living standard survey 2008 (VHLSS 2008) They are self-estimations by the respondents of their time spent daily

on household work rather than recording each specific task from the exact begining and end

Up to now, large-scale time-use survey data has been unavailable in Viet Nam, so researchers have been unable to attain reliable data for their relevant studies As mentioned above, some organizations have started to conduct data on time use patterns, but on a small scale only For example, the ActionAid Vietnam study was undertaken in nine provinces There are 784 women and men who were invited to provide information about their time use diaries

In brief, there are few studies about unpaid work within the household in Vietnam so far That could be explained by the lack of national data disaggregated by gender on time spent on daily household activities

3 CHAPTER 3 – Methodology

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is used for data collection Quantitative data was collected since 2017 by Development and Policies Research Center, using time use survey questionnaire Qualitative data that is expert consultancy then were conducted by the author in 2019 with experts in gender and sociology fields

3.1 Time use survey questionnaire

Time-use surveys are the primary statistical vehicle for recording information on how people precisely allocate their time over a specified period— typically over the 24 hours of a day A well-designed survey classifies activities across a total duration of

24 hours (or 1,440 minutes) per day (Margarita, Graham, & Mike, 2004) Time-use statistics shed light on:

− What individuals in the reference population do, or the activities they engage in

− How much time is spent doing each of these activities

Activities recorded in time-use surveys constitute the whole range of activities that a person may spend time on during the course of a day, including, for example, eating, sleeping, playing and caring children, working, doing household work, studying, relaxing, travelling and others

In this survey, the data collection agency, Development and Policies Research Center (DEPOCEN) used the American Time Use Survey Activity Lexicon 2016 to code activities collected into time-use categories The activity code will be presented in the following table The full time-use questionnaire will be found in the Annex 1

Table 3.1 Activity categories and code

4.1 Housework (interior cleaning, laundry, sewing, etc.)

4.2 Food & Drink Prep., Presentation, & Clean-up

4.3 Interior Maintenance, Repair, & Decoration

4.4 Household Management (Household organization and planning, financial

management, etc.)

4.5 Others

5 Caring For & Helping Household (HH) Members

5.1 Caring For & Helping HH Children (Physical care for household

children, playing with household children, etc.)

5.2 Activities Related to HH Children's Education (Homework (household

children), Waiting associated with household children's education, etc.) 5.3 Activities Related to HH Children's Health

5.4 Caring and Helping for Household Adults (elderly)

5.5 Others

6 Caring For & Helping Non-household Members

7 Work and Work Related Activities

7.1 Work, main job

7.2 Work-Related Activities (Eating and drinking as part of job, Socializing,

relaxing, and leisure as part of job, etc.)

7.3 Other Income-generating Activities

7.4 Job Search and Interviewing

7.5 Others

8 Education

8.1 Taking class for degree, certification, or licensure

8.2 Taking extra class (at school, centers)

8.3 Extracurricular School Activities (Except Sports)

8.4 Research/homework

8.5 Others

9 Socializing, Relaxing, and Leisure

9.1 Socializing and communicating with others

9.2 Attending or hosting parties/receptions/ceremonies

9.3 Attending/hosting sport events

9.4 Attending movies/film

9.5 Using social networks (Facebook, Twitter …)

9.6 Relaxing (Reading, watching …) on digital devices (tablet, smartphone,

etc.)

9.7 Reading books, newspaper

9.8 Watching TV, listening to radio

9.9 Relaxing

9.20 Others

10 Consumer Purchases

10.1 Food Shopping (Store, Telephone, Internet)

10.2 Shopping (Store, Telephone, Internet), not food

10.3 Researching Purchases

10.4 Others

11 Telephone Calls (to or from)

12 Participating in Sports, Exercise, or Recreation

13 Participation in religious practices

14 Participation in Volunteer Activities

15 Using personal care services (banking, legal services, Real Estate, health

and care services, veterinary services, etc.)

16 Using Government Services (Obtaining licenses & paying fines, fees,

taxes, etc.)

17 Using Household Services (interior cleaning services, clothing repair and

cleaning services, pet services, vehicle maintenance or repair services, etc.)

18 Traveling

18.1 Travel Related to Work

18.2 Travel Related to Caring For & Helping HH Members

18.3 Travel Related to Socializing, Relaxing, and Leisure

18.4 Travel Related to Consumer Purchases

18.5 Travel related to other activities

19 Others

For analysis, in this paper I would like to concentrate on a number of activity catergies

so that the 19 activities mentioned above will be grouped into the following categories

• Category 1: Personal care (No 1 and No 2 and No 3 and No 8)

• Category 2: Time for doing Housework (No 4 and No 5)

• Category 3: Work activities (No 7)

• Category 4: Relaxing and Public life (No 6, No 9, and No 10 – 19)

3.2 Quantitative data collection

The multi-stage sampling method was applied in the sampling process This design ensures that, within a given stratum, individuals who are drawn from different sampling units have the same probability of being selected, even if the size of the sampling units vary within that stratum

There are a total of nearly 1,500 households surveyed in the 5 provinces: Phu Tho, Hanoi (representative of the North), Da Nang (representative for the Center), Ho Chi Minh City, and Long An (representative of the South)

As mentioned previously, it is the first time a time use survey was conducted by DEPOCEN, so a number of limitations were found after the data collection process was completed For example, the questionnaire often took around 40 minutes for one respodent to complete, making it difficult to persuade the second member of the household to participate also As a result, it is impossible to collect time use of both spouse for relative comparison Among 1,500 respondents, females account for only

30 percent Moreover, the survey time was often during the daytime so it was challenging to meet and interview respondents working in particular jobs such as state-owned organizations Last but not least, in order to have a comprehensive understanding of housework distribution, it may include questions on other aspects such as decision making in family, confidence level and people’s attitude towards tradition norms of gender roles, that are lacking in this survey That results in a purely descriptive study for data collection It then could be improved by addressing these limitation and following other researches in the future

3.3 Description of sample

There are a total of 1,508 people interviewed in the time use survey However, among

them, only 1,193 people responded that their time use the previous day was typical

Those figures will be used to analyse daily time-use behavỉor In accordance with the survey design, respondents are required to be the household’s head and/or the second adult in the household who have a close relation with the household’s head, such as their spouse or mature child In Vietnam, traditionally men are defined as the head of households, so in this survey the number of male respondents is the overwhelming majority Male respondents account for 70 percent

The following table presents some key features of respondents

Table 3.2 Characteristics of respodents

Female Female Male Male Total Total

Young generation (born

No education or have not

completed primary school 48 14 86 10.2 134 11.3

Lower secondary school 123 35.9 283 33.7 406 34.3

single female respondents and widow/separated men, only 15 and 27 observations, it

is not enough data for sufficient statistics

Age cohort

In this survey, I would like to find whether there exists a differentiation between the young generation who were born and grew up in a more open and intergrated society and the older generation who experienced wars and are less open-minded with the Western culture In Vietnam, some market researches separated the population into different age cohorts relying on socio-politics-economic milestones Following that, the year of 1980 marked a turning point in the country’s reform People who were born before 1979 are called Generation X, subsequently the Generation Y are people were born in the period of 1980 to 1997 and the Generation Z are those born after

1997 In this survey, respondents must be older than 18 years old Looking at the data,

I would like to divide respondents into two age cohorts representative of the older generation and the younger generation by the year 1980

In this survey, majority of respondents are at the age of above 39 years old (old generation), making up 84 percent in general The group of respondents in young generation, from 18 to 39 years old, accounts for 16 percent in total The big gap between two groups could be explained that the youth prefer to moving to industrial zones or centers such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City for job seeking

Education level

The statistics show that the majority of respondents obtained primary and lower secondary level, with the percentages 34.3 and 25.3 respectively The higher the education level is, the lower the number of people that had achieved it For instance, only 18.8 percent had completed the upper secondary schools and this figure reduces

to only 10.3 percent for the vocational school/ college/university (undergraduate) or higher levels It is important to note that at the compulsory education level (the primary and lower secondary levels), the percentage of females who had graduated was fairly higher than the percentage of males (27.1% versus 24.5% and 35.9%

versus 33.7%) At the higher levels, the ratio of female respondents reduce while male’s one is increased For example, at the upper secondary level, the gap between male and female respondents is only 3.9 percentage points and it increases to 4.7 percentage points at post-secondary education level

Occupation

In this study, occupations are divided into two groups, informal and formal sectors The formal sector refers to work for organizations and companies with some type of working agreement and fixed pay and/or benefits For example, teachers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, soldiers, policemen, leaders/managers in enterprises or state agencies, and senior staff with high professional qualifications Meanwhile the informal sector includes self-employed work, agriculture/forestry/fishery work, driving and low-skilled and unskilled labor

In this survey, the percentage of respondents working in formal and informal sectors

is relatively equal, respectively 53.3 and 46.7 percent However, the ratio of female respondents working in the informal sector is much higher than the ratio of male, 60 percent versus 42.3 percent

Income

Based on the data collected, income is divided into four groups, below VND 5 million, from VND 5 million to below VND 10 million, from VND 10 million to below VND

15 million and more than VND 15 million The lowest level, less than VND 5 million

is equal to the minimum wage applied in areas of regional 1 (such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City), in accordance to Decree No 157/2018/ND-CP regulating minimum wage regarding the labor workers under the labor contract, dated on 16 November

2018 The data shows that in general, females earn less money than males Specifically, only the percentage of females earning below VND 5 million is higher than male’s one (54.3 percent and 47.7 percent) while for other income ranges, the percentages of men is always higher than that of women

Location

As mentioned above, the survey conducted in 5 provinces is representative of 3 regions in Vietnam In each province, two districts representative of urban and rural areas are selected Generally, the ratio of respondents from rural and urban areas is fairly similar The following table demonstrates details of the samples by provinces

Table 3.3 Respondents by provinces and gender

Location

Female Male Female Male Rural Urban

No No No No No % No %

3.4 Qualitative data collection

In order to build up a fine understanding about the context of gender issues in Vietnam, especially from the aspect of policy design and implementation, several in-depth interviews were conducted with gender experts A list of 10 experts was developed under suggestion from Dr Bui Hai Thiem In addition, after each interview, interviewees also provided suggestion for other experts Due to time constraint, all interview modes consisting of face-to-face interviews and interviews via telephone and email were used Each interview lasted around 45 to 60 minutes Interviews discussed on current legal framework and policies related to gender equalities Interviewees also provided their opinions and assessment about shortcomings of current gender-related policies and programs The questions used in interviews with experts will be found in the Annex 2

Table 3.4 List of gender experts

1 Dr Bui Hai Thiem Institute for Legislative Studies, National

Assembly of Vietnam

2 Vu Ngoc Binh Former consultant for United Nations agencies

(UNFPA, UNIFEM) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Vietnam

3 Ngo Thi Thu Ha Deputy Director of Center for Education

Promotion and Empowerment of Women

4 Nguyen Huu Minh Institute for Family and Gender Studies –

Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences

5 Pham Hai Chung Academy of Jourlism and Communication

4 CHAPTER 4 – Main Findings

This chapter will focus on analysing figures extrated from the time use survey data

to develop a comprehensive picture of the way men and women spending their time daily The chapter will have three parts The first part will provide detail on time spent

on conducting housework with sex disaggregation The second part will study the time distribution on other main group activities to establish the relation of time conducting housework with other activities The final part will explore whether there

is a nexus between time spending on housework and life satisfaction

4.1 Time spending on doing housework

In terms of the time spent conducting housework, it will include time for household activities such as cleaning, laundry, food and drink prepartion, etc and caring for household members, for instance teaching/playing with children and looking after children or the elder members of the family The data collected show that in category

of caring for household members, almost all time are used to caring and helping their children (92.6 percent of female group and 80 percent of male group) and only 10 –

20 percent is spent for caring adult members

The survey results show that the total amount of time females spent conducting housework was considerably higher than males On average, the time that women spent conducting housework is double the amount of the time spent by men, respectively 271 minutes and 103 minutes per day The difference in average time spending on housework between women and men is statistically significant (see Annex 2 for further details) In comparison with OECD data (Table 2.1), Vietnamese men are lazy in regards to completing housework, averaging only 103 minutes per day, around 30 minutes les than averange amount of time spent in OECD countries (136 min/day) However, that men’s time for housework is the highest among Asian countries Meanwhile, the averange time women in Viet Nam spend doing housework

is higher than the average OECD time (264.4 min/day) and only lower than Indian

India have a lower development level than other countries like Japan, Korea and China, and women in those two contries also spend more time conducting unpaid housework (see Figure 5.1) In the following paragraphs, I will go into further detail

on the gender gap of time spent doing housework regarding the criteria of marital stautus, education level, age cohort, urban-rural, and income level

Figure 4.1 Average time spent doing housework by gender and by nations (min)

Note: Retrived from DEPOCEN time-use survey data

By marital status

The Figure 5.2 below shows that married women have more housework to complete than single and widowed/divorced women In constrast, widowed/divorced men have more time to do their housework than single and married men Those figures may prove that when men are young and live in a family, they do not often do housework that may be taken care of by their mothers or female siblings After getting married, they will help their wives as evidenced by the amount of time increasing, up to 107 minutes per day When men are widowed/divorced, they no longer have someone to

show that marital status does not have a significant impact on the time women spend

on rountine housework, but it does have a profound impact on the time men spend performing housework (see Annex 2) In other words, there seems to be a correlation between the amount of time men spend on housework and their marital status, but no obvious correlation with women Those figures reflect the tradition custom and cultural perceptions that girls are expected to take on additional care and household tasks

Female Average time for household activities

Male Average time for household activities

Figure 4.2 Time spending on doing housework by gender and marital status (min)

Note: Retrived from DEPOCEN time-use survey data

By age cohorts

The data demonstrates that young women who are at childbearing age have to spend more time on housework much more than older women On average, women between the ages of 18 – 39 spend 350 minutes conducting unpaid domestic work per day; of them, 227 minutes is spent caring for household members and 123 minutes for