Washing machine ownership and girls' school attendance: a cross-sectional analysis of adolescents in 19 middle-income countries

Omar Karlsson () and Jan-Walter De Neve ()
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Omar Karlsson: Duke University Population Research Institute, Duke University
Jan-Walter De Neve: Medical Faculty and University Hospital, University of Heidelberg

The Journal of Economic Inequality, 2024, vol. 22, issue 3, No 8, 735-755

Abstract: Abstract Excessive work among adolescents may compromise educational development. Without home appliances, household work can take over 50 h a week and an additional 30 h when an infant is present. School-aged girls are often tasked with doing laundry, which is time-consuming and inflexible without a washing machine. We determined the association between washing machine ownership and school attendance among adolescents ages 10–19 years in 19 middle-income countries between 2000 and 2021 (N = 1,622,514). We controlled for socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, all neighborhood-level factors, and examined differences by sex, age, household wealth, and period. No relationship between washing machine ownership and school attendance was found in most countries: However, there was a substantial association for girls in Türkiye and a small to moderate association for girls in Egypt and Albania. In Türkiye, for example, girls living in households with a washing machine had 28% (95% CI 19, 37) greater school attendance compared to girls living in households which did not. No association was observed for boys. The results suggest that household ownership of a washing machine does generally not improve school attendance among girls, except possibly in specific contexts.

Keywords: School attendance; Household work; Washing machine; Middle-income countries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10888-023-09612-7

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