Parental time allocation sheds light on caregiving investments, gendered household patterns, and socioeconomic inequalities that have implications for early childhood development. Evidence on this allocation from low- and middle-income countries is scarce and predominantly mother-centric. Drawing on weekday time use diaries for 663 mother–father dyads with preschool-aged children in rural Ghana, we analyse how individual and joint education shape parents’ daily activities. Findings show gender and educational divides within and across households.
Fathers allocate more time to paid or farm work, whereas mothers devote more time to unpaid care. Compared to couples with no formal schooling, when both parents have some formal education (pre-primary or more), mothers spend more time engaging in learning activities with young children, and both parents spend more time providing care for children and elders in the household, and instead spend less time sleeping. Parental time use is correlated with fathers’ education, as in couples where only the mother has some formal education, there are no statistically significant differences in her time relative to mothers in couples where neither partner is educated.
Our results highlight the decisive role of paternal education and educational pairing in shaping parental time allocation: this is a nuance that is overlooked by early childhood development interventions that focus almost exclusively on mothers.