La economía oculta del tiempo de las mujeres: cuando la igualdad llega a las más altas esferas del poder, pero no al hogar

In October 2026, Takaichi said that preparing for her day, including bathing, preparing breakfast, doing the dishes and applying makeup, could add three to four hours to her daily routine compared with male predecessors.

Her remarks triggered debate about gender roles, leadership, personal responsibility and the expectations placed on women. But beneath the political controversy lies a much bigger economic issue.

Women’s time is an economic resource. Yet, much of the work that consumes it remains invisible in conventional measures of economic productivity.

1. The unpaid economy has a price

One of the most striking figures in the reporting is the disparity in domestic labour in Japan.

According to government figures cited by the Associated Press, women spend nearly five hours a day on housework, compared with approximately 40 minutes for men.

This is not simply a question of who washes the dishes or prepares breakfast.

It is a question of how societies distribute time, opportunity and economic responsibility.

Consider what happens when one person consistently carries a disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work:

• Less time for professional development and acquiring new skills.

• Less flexibility to pursue leadership positions or entrepreneurial opportunities.

• Less capacity to build professional networks and participate in economic decision-making.

• Less time to manage personal finances, research investments and build assets.

• Greater pressure to sacrifice rest and personal wellbeing to meet competing responsibilities.

The economic consequences extend beyond the household. They influence women’s participation in labour markets, career progression, earning capacity and long-term wealth accumulation.

2. The opportunity cost of being a woman

From a WEMATTER perspective, this is where the conversation becomes particularly important.

Economics teaches us that resources are scarce and that every decision involves an opportunity cost.

Time is no exception.

When women spend more hours performing unpaid work, those hours cannot simultaneously be invested in income-generating activities, education, entrepreneurship, professional advancement or financial planning.

This creates a chain of economic consequences:

The implications are particularly important for women in midlife, women navigating career transitions, women entrepreneurs and women who move across countries.

A career interruption or a reduction in working hours can have consequences that extend well beyond the immediate loss of income. It can affect pension contributions, investment capacity, career opportunities and the accumulation of productive assets.

We cannot have a serious conversation about women’s wealth without having a serious conversation about women’s time.

3. Representation is not the same as structural equality

There is another dimension to Takaichi’s story.

Her position as Japan’s first female prime minister represents a significant moment in the country’s political history. Yet, occupying the highest political office does not automatically mean that the structures surrounding women have changed.

This is an important distinction in feminist economics.

La representación de las mujeres en los puestos de liderazgo es importante. Sin embargo, la representación por sí sola no redistribuye el trabajo no remunerado, no cambia las expectativas en el lugar de trabajo ni aborda los mecanismos institucionales que determinan las oportunidades económicas de las mujeres.

There is also a subtle contradiction worth examining.

Una mujer puede alcanzar el más alto nivel de liderazgo político y, aun así, verse obligada a actuar dentro de unas expectativas que le imponen de forma desproporcionada las responsabilidades domésticas.

We should not turn this into a judgement about Takaichi’s personal choices. The more productive question is why domestic responsibilities remain so closely associated with women, even when their professional responsibilities are equivalent to, or greater than, those of men.

And why should exceptional working hours be the price of demonstrating leadership?

4. The economic question is not how women can do more

Perhaps the most important question is whether we are designing economies and workplaces around an outdated assumption: that someone, usually a woman, will take care of everything outside paid employment.

This has implications for several areas of economic policy:

• Workplace design: Flexible working arrangements, predictable schedules and more equitable parental leave.

• Care infrastructure: Accessible childcare, eldercare and support for dependent family members.

• Economic measurement: Recognising unpaid care work in economic analysis and national policy discussions.

• Financial security: Understanding how career interruptions affect lifetime earnings, pensions and investment capacity.

• Leadership: Challenging the expectation that successful women must simply become better at managing multiple responsibilities.

These are not exclusively women’s issues. They are questions about how economies organise and allocate their resources.

5. What does this mean for women and wealth?

At WEMATTER GLOBAL, we look at women’s economic empowerment through a broader lens than financial literacy alone.

Knowing how to save, invest and manage money matters. But financial knowledge cannot be separated from the economic conditions that determine whether women have the income, time, resources and autonomy to act on that knowledge.

We need to examine the entire journey:

• EARN: Do women have equitable access to income-generating opportunities?

• KEEP: How do unpaid responsibilities and structural inequalities affect their ability to retain income?

• GROW: Do they have the time, resources and opportunities to build financial knowledge and invest?

• OWN: Are they accumulating productive assets and building long-term economic independence?

The question is not simply whether women know how to create wealth.

It is whether the economy gives them a fair opportunity to do so.

The WEMATTER GLOBAL takeaway

There is something particularly revealing about this story.

We often celebrate women who break barriers, enter male-dominated professions traditionally and reach positions of extraordinary influence.

But perhaps we should also examine what happens outside the boardroom, parliament or executive office.

Who prepares the meals? Who takes care of the children? Who looks after ageing parents? Who manages the household? And who absorbs the opportunity cost of all this work?

These questions belong in conversations about economic growth, productivity, labour markets and wealth creation.

Women’s economic empowerment cannot be measured solely by how many women enter the workforce or reach leadership positions. We must also examine whether they have the time, resources and economic freedom to build wealth and own assets.

Because equality is not simply about giving women a seat at the table.

It is also about changing the economic structures that determine how much of their time, energy and potential they must sacrifice to get there.

WEMATTER GLOBAL — Building an equal world for women on the move.

Sources and references

These are the sources I would include in the article and in the Instagram caption’s source notes.