Time Use at home and its impact on income of female urban informal microentrepreneurs

From the 6.3 Million informal entreprepeneurs in Perú, 56.2% are women. Two of three jobs are generated within family businesses or in the independent work. This study aims to find out in how far time use at home may have an impact on the net income of female urban entrepreneurs in the informal sector. The Peruvian Time Use Survey (2010) is analized and in-depth interviews are conducted with young female entrepreuneurs in Lima. Our main results suggest that with higher income, regardless of age, women dedicate less time to three main duties: care of children, cooking and house cleaning. Nevertheless, compared to their partners, they keep on working significantly more hours at home. In depth-interviews corroborate this finding and bring out the importance of family networks within this context.