Gender convergence in the American heritage time use study (AHTUS)

We present evidence from a new comprehensive database of harmonized national time-diary data that standardizes information on almost 40 years of daily life in America. The advantages of the diary method over other ways of calculating how time is spent are reviewed, along with its ability to generate more reliable and accurate measures of productive activity than respondent estimates or other alternatives. We then discuss the various procedures used to develop these harmonized data, both to standardize reporting detail and to match with Census Bureau population characteristics. We then use these data to document historical shifts in Americans' use of time, particularly focusing on gendered change in paid and unpaid work. We explore these data to find new and more complex evidence of continuing gender convergence, not just in aggregated totals of hours worked, but also in (1) the distributions of activity through the day and the week, (2) the sorts of activities that marital partners do together, as well as (3) the processes of construction of the diary accounts themselves.