Also, in traditional societies a woman who moves out of her accepted family role in order to take a job may be seen as 'loose' and subjected to sexual harassment. For those most in need of work, leaving the job is not an option. Particular attention has been focused on the traditional allocation of housework and child care (reproduction) to women, and the limiting impact of this gender division of labour on women's a bility to participate in non-domestic (production) work.
The extent of the additional burden on women is illustrated by the finding that married women in Malaysia who do housework and are in paid employment outside the home spend, on average, 112 hours per week working, while the equivalent figure for the USA is fifty-nine hours.2° Further more, contrary to the common notion of the male breadwinner, in many Third World cities, particularly in Latin America and parts of Africa, up to ha lf of households are female-headed.21 Even where men and women both con tribute to household income, women typically contribute a larger part of their earnings to household expenses.