Is the Mexican Youth an Agent of Change? An Analysis of Gender and the Heterogeneity of Time Use Patterns of Mexicans 15 to 29 Years Old

Estela Rivero Fuentes, El Colegio de México
Carla Pederzini, Universidad Iberoamericana

In the last two decades, gender inequalities in Mexico have closed in several fronts. Years of schooling have increased substantially and the gender gap in schooling has narrowed, and even reversed in primary school. The probability that women work at least once in their lifetime is close to 70%, and the reasons for their incorporation to the labor market have changed. However, within households gender roles have changed little for the majority of the population. Time use patterns show that men spend little time in caregiving and household activities, while women do most of these. Past studies have shown that the youth behave, on average, differently and can be seen as agents of change. With the objective of determining whether gender roles may indeed change in the future in Mexico, in this paper we analyze the heterogeneity of the time use patterns of 15 to 29 years old.