Time-use Surveys and Research on Family Policies in Latin America: Developments and Challenges

How have time-use surveys contributed to research on family policies in Latin America? To what extent has this research fuelled the public debate around family policies in the region? This chapter provides a “state of the art” of academic and policy-related research using time-use surveys as crucial evidence for describing the context in which family policies take shape and their consequences for gender inequality. Based on a review of publications, this chapter describes the evolution of time-use surveys in the region, the main challenges faced by researchers using time-use data, and the opportunities that arise to provide answers to old and new questions. It also explores the role of time-use surveys in shaping the collective construction of problems and solutions concerning family policies.