aguero marks and raykar document a significant motherhood wage penalty in a large sample of women from developing countries the gap is widest in egypt and india where approximately of workingage women identify housework as their main activity followed by hirkey and tunisia where the figure is about the average for european oecd countries and the united states is only these data underline the profound disparities in the division of household responsibilities between men and women throughout the emerging world but provide little information about the extent to which women s participation in paid employment is constrained by their family responsibilities by allowing a detailed breakdown of people s time this type of survey provides a more nuanced picture of gender roles