The daily life of an unemployed person in America primarily involves searching for work, personal care, and leisure activities. This New York Times infographic shows the amount of time spent on a certain activity for men and women in their mid-20’s to early 50’s, and reveals just how gendered some activities still are.
Maroon signifies housework, beige signifies caring for others, dark and light blue signify leisure time, and yellow signifies education.
On a given day, more men spend time watching television and focusing on education, while traveling and socializing take about the same precedence for both men and women. Women spend a drastically greater amount of time caring for others and doing housework than do men. In a sample of 44 men and women, 6 women spent most of their waking hours caring for others, compared to only 1 man. In fact, one fifth of unemployed women spend most of their time caring for a dependent, usually their own.
Another infographic shows that there are more men in school and more men caring for others now than there were in 2000:
Though this infographic shows slightly more involvement in care taking activities, the overwhelming majority of those unemployed persons spending their time with house and home are women. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these historically gendered tasks remain pretty gendered as we venture into 2015.
Photos courtesy of The New York Times.
