Educational Attainment, Effect of Unpaid Labor on

Most children in developing countries combine education with paid or unpaid labor. There are significant gender differences in the types and location of this labor, but research indicates that heavy work burdens for children reduce school attendance rates and academic achievement. Worldwide, girls are significantly more likely than boys to be involved in unpaid household labor (commonly called “chores”), and boys are slightly more likely than girls to be employed outside the household. Unpaid household labor may include caring for siblings, fetching water, cooking, or other similar activities but does not include income-generating agricultural work on a family's land.

Data from a household survey conducted in the 2000s in 16 developing countries provide a profile of work activities. Although there is significant cross-country variation, on average, 21 percent of boys and 15 percent of girls aged 5 to 14 years were employed outside the home during the past decade. Boys worked an average of 20.2 hours per week and girls an average of 19.2 hours.

However, when unpaid household labor is considered, both the participation rates and hours worked are higher for girls. More than 70 percent of girls in this age group performed unpaid household services (for an average of 11.12 hours per week), whereas just over half of boys worked in the home (for 8.5 hours per week). A combined measure of work that includes both economic and household activities shows that there are more girls working than boys for all of the survey regions.

[Page 459]School attendance rates are lower for girls than for boys in most developing countries. The Millennium Development Goals include targets for universal primary school education and gender parity in education access by 2015. Enrollment in primary education has improved significantly over the past decade, reaching a high of 88 percent of children in 2007. However, of the 72 million children out of school in 2007, half had never been inside a classroom. Although gender disparities have been reduced, there are still only 94 girls for every 100 boys enrolled in secondary schools in developing countries, with significantly greater disparities in Africa and south Asia. Family income is a major predictor of school enrollment: only 31 percent of girls (and 41 percent of boys) from the poorest income quintile enroll in secondary school. Most girls who do not attend school are members of excluded groups (e.g., ethnic or tribal minorities). Furthermore, children who live in rural areas are significantly less likely to attend school than children in urban areas.