Technology Helps: How do we give women their time back?
Technology Helps: How do we give women their time back?
https://businessday.ng/bd-weekender/article/technology-helps-how-do-we-give-women-their-time-back/
Publish Date: 2026-06-20 00:26:00
Source Domain: businessday.ng
This article was sparked by a conversation with my friend, who asked me what I would name Alexa, which I am still thinking about. Consider this my way of giving credit to my muse. But as often happens, my mind wandered far beyond the question itself. It took me back to a concept I wrote about a few months ago: time poverty. Time poverty is the chronic lack of sufficient time for rest, personal choice, and self-development because of the overwhelming burden of care and domestic responsibilities, a burden that continues to fall disproportionately on women across the world.
While we work to change the norms, what can we do about the reality women are living right now? How can technology help? Time poverty produces deteriorating life outcomes. The things that suffer are health, learning opportunities, rest, mental capacity, social capital, leadership opportunities, and ultimately longevity. Women often spend years caring for everyone except themselves, leaving little time to invest in their own growth, wellbeing, or economic advancement.
In many ways, this is the human capital cost of time poverty. It is what happens when women spend decades performing repetitive labour that could be reduced, streamlined, or automated. It is what happens when time that could have been invested in education, innovation, leadership, relationships, or health is consumed by tasks that technology is increasingly capable of performing more efficiently.
So perhaps this article is less about Alexa and more about a question that sits at the heart of gender-responsive development: How do we give women their time back?
Gender Norms and the Assumption That Women’s Time Is Available
Time poverty does not emerge by accident. It is produced by gender norms that shape how society values and allocates women’s time.
Across many cultures, women are expected to…
