Over the last two decades, the amount of wealth in the world has increased. However, this material affluence has not translated into time affluence. Most people report feeling like they don’t have enough time. The thing about this is that this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. Indeed, people nowadays feel like they don’t have enough time for themselves. This is doubly true for women as they have more to juggle. Women with children are particularly vulnerable to this as some of them have to work a nine-to-five all while taking care of the household.
This occurrence is called time poverty and it has drastically affected women’s lives. And while you may not think that time poverty has had real and detrimental effects on women, this just isn’t the case. Time poverty has negatively affected the lives of women on both a physical and mental level. Now, we understand that you may not know much about this. This is why we thought it would be useful to put together a brief piece on this subject. If this is something that you want to learn more about, read on to understand how time poverty affects women.
What Is Time Poverty?
Time poverty is the concept that individuals do not have enough free time – the time they can use after they have slept and after they have performed their necessary duties – to engage in non-essential activities.
How Does Time Poverty Affect Women’s Health?
In fact, women are less likely to seek medical care because of a lack of time. As shown in a study, almost one-quarter of women delay or forgo medical care altogether due to insufficient time. This can lead to more serious health issues that are not treated in time, which can be extremely harmful.
Women who suffer from time poverty are also often forced to make less-healthy food choices, and they also tend to move less frequently. One study in the United States found that time-poor individuals are less likely to walk or cycle for exercise, though they are also less likely to purchase fast food.
How Does Time Poverty Affect Women’s Mental Health?
Aside from the negative effects on your physical health, time poverty also affects your mental well-being. You might think that being time-starved would have no impact on your mental health, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Being time-poor can have a major impact on your job performance, creativity, and relationship quality. If you think about it, this shouldn’t be all too surprising considering how important work-life balance is to your overall well-being.
Indeed, not having enough time for yourself will lead to the deterioration of women’s mental health. In fact, the lack of work-life balance has led to widespread burnout. So much so that the World Health Organization has declared burnout as an occupational phenomenon.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article proves to be useful when it comes to furthering your understanding of how time poverty negatively affects women. As you can see, time poverty and the lack of time, in general, have hurt and will continue to hurt women. Be sure to keep everything that we’ve discussed in mind so you can best navigate your life.
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