The Distribution of Housework among men and women in Ghana: The National Time Transfer Accounts Approach

National accounts are bereft of the time contributions of non-remunerated production mainly because there is no explicit economic compensation. Thus, disaggregating the national production by sex is quite illusive which seems to suggest that women’s contribution is significantly lower than men’s. In this study, we estimate the value and distribution of paid and unpaid work based on time-use survey data for Ghana in 2009 and to highlight the differences between men and women in performing these activities. We find that there is marked gender specialisation in productive activities – women specialise in household production whereas men specialise in market production. However, there is evidence of “double shift” – that is, women spend more time on productive activities for significant parts of their lives. We also find that there are significant net transfers of household production flowing from adults to children and elderly in a seemingly equal proportion. The findings suggest some key policies including bridging the gender gap regarding access to high level education, total work load and strengthening the support system to free time for women to increase their participation in paid work.