Classified in the category of household tasks in the surveys carried out by the Brazilian Census Office (IBGE), domestic labor performed by housewives has always been considered economic inactivity, similar to that of students, pensioners, the disabled and those who live on unearned income. Such work remains invisible in official statistics, although the early 1990s saw changes. This article has the aim of shedding some light on the topic by analyzing the average number of hours spent on household tasks according to a number of variables. The author holds that, due to the high number of hours dedicated to domestic tasks (usually by women), it would be legitimate to consider this category as one that performs unpaid labor, and never as one with economic inactivity.
Gender; Household tasks; Unpaid labor; Use of time; Official statistics
