Time, Job Search and Gendered Constraints
Exploring how unequal access to time shapes work, opportunity, and women's career paths.
Credit: Rodolfo Barretto on Unsplash
Time is one of the most important - and unequal - resources in society. Women spend more time on unpaid care, and this shapes not only their labour-market choices but also their job-search behaviour and opportunities.
This theme explores:
- How differences in time availability influence job-finding rates, employment patterns, and access to good jobs.
- The subtle ways that time constraints shape expectations, aspirations, and labour-market trajectories.
- How these inequalities emerge long before parenthood, revealing deeply gendered norms around time allocation.
Research focus:
Inequality at work isn't only about skills or pay - it's also about access to time.
Our research shows that gender gaps in employment and careers are shaped by how time is structured and constrained during key transitions into work. Women face unequal time pressures - from family expectations, caregiving responsibilities, and social norms - that affect when they search for jobs, which opportunities they pursue, and whether they accept offers at all.
This work draws on research by Oriana Bandiera, Amen Jalal and Nina Roussille, which shows that even when women have similar aspirations and qualifications to men, differences in timing and job-search constraints can lead to large gaps in employment. Delaying job search - often because competing demands are underestimated - substantially reduces women's likelihood of entering and remaining in paid work.
The findings highlight how opportunity alone is not enough: when and how people can search for work matters. Policies and practices that reduce time constraints, support early labour-market entry, and recognise gendered pressures on time can play a crucial role in expanding women's access to work - and in unlocking untapped talent.
Shifting job search earlier substantially increases women's employment, while leaving men's outcomes unchanged - showing how timing and access to time, not ability, drive gender gaps.
Source: Bandiera, Jalal & Roussille (2025), The Illusion of Time: Gender Gaps in Job Search and Employment, NBER.
