Worldwide, women work an average of four years longer than men because of additional unpaid responsibilities, like housework and childcare, according to a new report. Four years.
Imagine what you could do with four years. You could travel the world, write a book, master a new skill or watch absolutely everything on Netflix. There’s nothing wrong with caring for others and we all have to do chores at some point, but women globally are doing more than their share and missing opportunities to do literally anything else.
The report was created by ActionAid, an organization fighting global poverty, and presented to the United Nations. Using World Bank data for 217 countries and an average life expectancy of 69 years, researchers analyzed the total amount of paid and unpaid work for men and women globally. They subtracted the total number of hours men work from women’s hours and found a huge gap — due to women doing additional unpaid work — that even pay equality can’t fix.