Time Use by Unemployd Female Heads of Households in Urban Tanzania

Abstract

A time-use study was conducted on unemployed female heads of households in two urban centres in Tanzania in 1992.  Diary keeping was the main data collection method, complemented by the observation method.  Each urban female head of a household in the sample was given in watch and provided with a diary.  The watch facilitated in recording the correct times in the diary.  The times recorded in the diary were that of waking up, going to sleep in the night, the beginning and ending of every activity she performed during the day.  A research assistant visited her daily, in addition to assisting her daily keeping, the assistant made observations on the activity being performed and tools used in performing it.  Data was collected for fourteen consecutive days.  The study revealed that the female heads of households were awake for an average of sixteen hours daily, and that they generally spent more time in informal economic activities than in domestic ones.  They spent very little time on personal hygiene and hardly any on recreation.  Widows spent the longest time in informal economic activities.  The women did not use appropriate tools to save time, for example, to brew local beer, cook food, make cakes and prepare meals – they used firewood and charcoal.