Gender, Time Use, and Health

One of the continuing paradoxes facing social epidemiologists concerns sex differences in morbidity and mortality. Although women live longer than men, they apparently get sick more. We hypothesize that women's higher morbidity levels result from less paid work and lower wages combined with mor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of health and social behavior 1991-06, Vol.32 (2), p.114-129
Main Authors: Bird, Chloe E., Fremont, Allen M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aging & longevity
Biological and medical sciences
Child care
Differential and comparative psychology
Employment
Female
Females
Follow-Up Studies
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender
Gender Differences
Gender roles
Health
Health Behavior
Health Status
Helping Behavior
Housekeeping
Humans
Leisure Activities
Leisure time
Longevity
Male
Males
Men
Middle Aged
Models, Psychological
Morbidity
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Recreation
Role
Sex Differences
Sex Factors
Sex linked differences
Sex Roles
Social research
Social roles
Surveys and Questionnaires
Time Factors
Time Utilization
United States - epidemiology
Women
Womens health
Work
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Summary:One of the continuing paradoxes facing social epidemiologists concerns sex differences in morbidity and mortality. Although women live longer than men, they apparently get sick more. We hypothesize that women's higher morbidity levels result from less paid work and lower wages combined with more hours spent in household labor, child care, and helping others, and fewer hours of leisure and sleep. Men and women hold different social roles; men hold most of the highly rewarding roles. We operationalize social roles as time commitments to various role-related activities. This approach provides interval-level measures such as time spent in caring for children instead of simple dichotomies such as parent/nonparent. We find that when gender differences in social roles are controlled, being male is associated with poorer health than being female. We conclude that if gender roles were more equal, women would experience better health than men, more consistent with their greater longevity.
ISSN:0022-1465
2150-6000
DOI:10.2307/2137147