SOCIETY
9. TIME BUDGETS
SOURCES. Vasilii Patrushev, Zhizn' gorozhanina (1965- 1998) [Life of the City Dweller, 1965-98]. Moscow: Academia, 2000; Biudzhet vremeni i peremeny v zhiznedeiatel'nosti gorodskikh zhitelei v 1965-1998 godakh [The Time Budget and Changes in the Living Activities of City Dwellers Between 1965 and 1998]. Moscow: Izd-vo Instituta sotsiologii RAN, 2001 (pp. 34-44)
Time budgets -- the allocation of people's time among various activities -- are an important indicator of the standard and quality of life. The research group headed by Professor Patrushev at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences has carried out time budget surveys in Pskov in 1965, 1986, and most recently in 1997-98. Pskov is taken to be a "typical Russian city" -- not a very clear or useful concept. (In one respect at least Pskov Province is unique, being the only Russian province which has had an LDPR governor, Yevgeny Mikhailov.)
The analysis focuses on employed adults of working age (18-65 years), although there are now a substantial number of unemployed in Pskov. Due to shortage of funds, the sample size for this part of the population has fallen from 2,671 in 1965 and 1,853 in 1986 to just 231 (88 men and 143 women) in 1997-98. We are assured that the sample remains representative, but with such small sample sizes sampling errors must be very high. So let us consider only the most striking contrasts.
The week of 168 hours is allocated among the following five main types of activity:
-- paid work
-- other activity connected to work, mainly commuting
-- domestic work, subdivided into housework, shopping, childcare, and work on
garden plots
-- physical needs -- mainly sleeping, also eating, washing, etc.
-- free time
In 1965, men spent on average 43 hours a week at work, while women spent 40 hours. Men also spent an hour a week more than women traveling to and from work. However, women spent over twice as much time as men doing domestic work (34 hours as against 15), so women's total work time exceeded men's by a wide margin (80 hours compared to 65). As a result, women had 3 hours less than men for their physical needs and 12 hours less free time (21 hours compared to 33).
Only one major change in this pattern occurred between 1965 and 1986. Women now spent 7 hours less on domestic work, and as a result had 5 hours more free time and 2 hours more for their physical needs. The reduction in domestic work pertained to housework in the narrow sense, not to shopping, childcare, or gardening. It did not arise from any increase in the time men spent doing housework, but rather reflected the increased availability of time-saving appliances.
The main change occurring between 1986 and 1997-98 is that women are now spending 7 hours less in paid work (33 hours instead of 40). The time they spend on their physical needs has increased accordingly, by a further 4 hours, and now significantly exceeds the corresponding figure for men. Women now also have more free time than in the past, only a little less than men have (29 hours compared to 31).
The author suggests that the shift in women's time budget may be the result of compulsory short-time working. In other words, it is a beneficial byproduct of hidden unemployment. This reflects the differential impact of industrial contraction on men's and women's employment, which is likely to vary considerably from one city to another.
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