Can Housework Help? Gender, Time Use And Disparities In Meeting Physical Activity Requirements

• In Event: 427 - Section on Medical Sociology Paper Session. Rating Health

Abstract

For decades, U.S. health surveillance systems, which utilize measures of leisure time physical activity (Maddison et al. 2007), have consistently reported that men engage in more physical activity than women (CDC 2012). However, well-documented patterns of gender specialized time use (Bianchi, Robinson, and Milkie 2007; Bianchi, Sayer, Milkie, Robinson 2012), in which men spend more time on paid work and women spend more time on domestic work, suggest that women may be in a better position to achieve physical activity requirements than men if survey measures of physical activity were more broadly constructed. We assess the role that gender specialization in time use plays in the likelihood men and women achieve nationwide physical activity guidelines using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS). We find that when time spent on any form of moderate level physical activity is accounted for, including time spent on paid and unpaid work, women are more likely than men to meet HHS physical activity guidelines, contrary to current understanding. These results suggest leisure-focused physical activity questions may produce biased results and over represent men’s likelihood of meeting physical activity requirements. Our analysis highlights the consequences of relying on survey questions designed to tap levels of physical activity without considering the broad social forces, like gender specialization in time use, that shape understandings of what constitutes physical activity.

Authors

• Rachel Cusatis, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

• Noelle A. Chesley, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee