Género y usos del tiempo: nuevos enfoques metodológicos

Abstract

In the last decades, the time use studies have gained increasing importance. To know the way women and men distribute their time among different activities along the day, has enabled a more complete vision about the social organization of time and the differences for sex and other significant socio-demographic variables (age, family type, etc.). In this article we introduce, in the first place, a concept of time that overcomes the narrow vision that usually considers the economy, recognizing the times that fall outside the mercantile perspective. Next we discuss the methodological possibilities of a time use study, performed in the city of Barcelona. The objective of it is to carry out a spe cific analysis -not very usual in this type of studies- regarding to the home typology, the simultaneity of activities, the time of family cares and the time use for intervals of hours. The results show the potentiality of this methodology in the analysis of the activity of women and men, although their limitations are also pointed out. These are related with the lack of information on the subjective aspects of time that, however, significantly contribute to the gender inequalities.