Women bear the brunt of domestic chores in Estonia - statisticians

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

An average Estonian woman does three hours paid work a day, acts in a considerably more environment-friendly way than men, spends slightly less than half an hour shopping, and shoulders most of housework, it appears from statistics collated by the national statistics agency on the occasion of the International Women's Day.

The time use study showed that paid workday of an Estonian woman begins at around 8:30 a.m. She spends 20 minutes or so to get to work. Women use cars less than men, preferring public transport, walking or cycling, and making thereby a daily contribution to energy saving and reduction of emissions, which is one of the aims of the Europe 2020 initiative. A woman works intensely till noon, goes to lunch shortly after midday and returns at 1:30 p.m. at the latest. She goes home shortly after 4 p.m. This is the pattern for around 30 percent of Estonian women.

Women play the leading role in housework, this not only in Estonia but in many European countries. Compared to men, women spend nearly twice as much time on doing chores. For Estonian women, housework peaks after waking in the morning and after getting home from work in the evening. Cooking takes the most time, nearly an hour and 20 minutes, which is almost half an hour more than spent by Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian women. Between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. a stable 30 percent of women do housework.

An average woman spends about three hours a day with her family. She dedicates half an hour to her children and a quarter of an hour to helping some other household. Time spent with non-family members makes up around an hour and a half.

Shopping and various services take up 26 minutes per day, only five minutes more than for men. During the past decade the time spent shopping by women has shortened a little but lengthened by a couple of minutes for men.

Women have an average five hours and 16 minutes of free time a day of which a remarkable part, more than two hours, is spent on watching TV. Communication consumes 37 minutes, reading 30 minutes, using a computer 25 minutes, and exercise another 25 minutes.

An average Estonian woman sleeps eight hours and 52 minutes a day, going to bed as a rule after 10 p.m. and waking up around 7 a.m.