Federal Report Reveals Significant Gender Differences in How Americans Spend Their Day

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its latest edition of the American Time Use Survey. The report examines the average amount of time Americans over the age of 15 spend on various activities each day, revealing significant variations between the daily lives of men and women as of 2025.

Across all age groups, women spend more time than men on household activities, averaging 2.38 hours and 1.58 hours, respectively, for all Americans ages 15 and older. Compared to men, women also dedicate significantly more of their daily time caring for household members. Among adults ages 25 to 34, women spend over twice as long per day caring for household members than men do (1.11 hours versus 0.47 hours). A similar, but slightly less pronounced, disparity was found among adults ages 35 to 44 (1.63 hours versus 0.81 hours).

In contrast, men spend more time per day working than women do, particularly among adults ages 35 to 44 (5.90 hours versus 3.77 hours) and adults ages 45 to 54 (5.29 versus 4.13 hours). Across all age groups, men also spend more time than women on leisurely activities, averaging 5.58 hours and 4.76 hours per day, respectively.

Among employed Americans, the average man and woman spend similar portions of their day working (7.88 hours versus 7.41 hours). Both men and women are more likely to work at their workplace than at home; however, women are slightly more likely to work from home. Among Americans who work outside of their home, men spend more hours working per day than women do (8.04 hours versus 7.65 hours). The reverse is true for Americans who work from home on the average day, with women working slightly more hours per day than men (5.20 hours versus 4.99 hours).

Among adults who live in households with children under the age of 18, women spend 1.74 hours per day and men spend 0.99 hours per day caring for them. Among households with a child under the age of six, women spend an average of 1.12 hours more per day than men on childcare. This disparity is largely attributed to physical childcare, rather than time spent attending to children’s education-related activities and hobbies.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles

Latest News

Jamie Hooyman to Lead North Central Missouri College

Most recently, Dr. Hooyman was vice president of academic affairs and provost of Northwest Missouri State University. She was the first woman to serve in that role.

Karen Davis O’Hara Named Director of Kenai Peninsula College in Alaska

Born and raised in Alaska, Dr. O'Hara previously spent more than two decades with the College of Education at California State University, Sacramento. More recently, she was executive director of Sierra College's Nevada County Campus.

Elizabeth Maher Muoio Is President of the Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey

The Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey is a nonprofit that supports New Jersey's 13 independent, nonprofit, public missions institutions of higher education through efforts such as philanthropy and public policy advocacy.

University of Texas at Arlington President Jennifer Cowley to Step Down

Four years after she was named the first woman president of the University of Texas at Arlington, Dr. Cowley has announced that she will step down and return to the faculty.

Megan Walsh to Lead Academic Affairs at Edgewood University in Wisconsin

Prior to her new role, Dr. Walsh was dean and campus director of the University of Maine at Machias. Before that, she spent more than a decade with St. Bonaventure University in New York.

Assistant Professor, Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics

The Kenneth C. Griffin Department of Economics at the University of Chicago invites applications for tenure-track faculty positions in Economics at the Assistant Professor level.

Tenure-Track or Tenured Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering, College of Engineering at Texas A&M University, invites applications for ten full-time, tenure-track or tenure review upon hire, at all levels (Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor) with a nine-month academic appointment.

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Health Studies

We seek to make an appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor, in the health humanities or critical social sciences of health, including but not limited to medical anthropology and the history of medicine.

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Haverford College invites applications for a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Philosophy to begin Fall 2027. The Department of Philosophy seeks a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor beginning Fall semester, 2027.

Instructional Professor (Open Rank) in Global Studies

The Social Sciences Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago invites applications for an open-rank Instructional Professor position in the undergraduate Global Studies program.