The bar chart compares the average number of hours worked daily by men and women in eight developing countries, as well as the average for developing countries as a whole, between 1998 and 2003. It is also shows how much longer women work than men.
Overall, women spent more time at work than men in every country shown. Men’s working hours were fairly similar across most nations, whereas the gap between the sexes varied considerably.
The gap was widest in Benin, where women worked 2 hours and 25 minutes longer than men, followed by Mexico at 1 hour 45 minutes and India at 1 hour 5 minutes. In these three countries, women’s total working time was close to 8 hours. By contrast, the difference was much smaller in Mongolia, at only 44 minutes, even though men there worked the longest hours of all, at roughly 8.5 hours. Mauritius recorded the smallest gap, at just 24 minutes.
The remaining countries fell in between. South Africa, Rep. of Korea and Madagascar showed extra hours of 59, 58 and 51 minutes respectively. The average for developing countries was 1 hours 9 minutes.