CAPMAS: Women in Egypt perform more than double the unpaid household work of men

Cairo - 20 January 2026: New data released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) highlights a significant gender gap in unpaid household work in Egypt, showing that women spend nearly twice as much time as men on domestic and care-related activities.

According to the statistics, women spend an average of 4.5 hours per day on household activities, compared to 2.3 hours for men. This means that women perform approximately 2.2 times more unpaid work than men.

The findings are based on CAPMAS’s latest study on unpaid household work, which surveyed 2,400 households and examined participation rates across both urban and rural areas. The data reveal a clear disparity between men and women in their involvement in unpaid work, with women bearing the greater share of domestic responsibilities, particularly in rural communities.

This gap reflects the impact of traditional social roles and the prevailing division of labor within families.

In urban areas, women’s participation in unpaid domestic work reached 30 percent, with an average of 4.8 hours per day, compared to 13 percent for men, who averaged 2.4 hours daily. The gap widens further in rural areas, where women’s participation rose to 40 percent, averaging 5.4 hours per day, while men’s participation stood at 15.8 percent, with an average of 2.6 hours per day.

CAPMAS classifies unpaid domestic services as part of general production work, including cleaning, sweeping, laundry, and overall household management.

Unpaid care services cover responsibilities such as caring for children and the elderly, as well as providing care for sick and disabled family members. The study also includes voluntary activities, encompassing both voluntary and obligatory services provided to the community, in addition to unpaid assistance offered to other households, including those of relatives, friends, and neighbors.

The findings underscore the continuing imbalance in the distribution of unpaid work and highlight the heavier domestic burden carried by women, especially in rural areas.