Use of Wearable Technology to Observe Gender Difference in Workload in Farming Households in Indonesia

The advent of smartphones and wearable sensors affords the opportunity to make direct objective, empirical observations of respective activity levels and locations in ‘real time’. Monitoring and measuring objectively the intensity of physical activity and places where activity occurs, potentially allows inferences to be drawn as to the nature of the activity – i.e. the major division according to the ICATUS classification. For example moderate activity in the location of farm land is likely to be agricultural related; in contrast lighter activity is likely to be household related. Examples of potential indicators that could be tracked are:
• Farming activities of women and men (frequency, intensity, duration etc)
• Sleep/waking hours
• Active vs. resting waking hours (time spent sitting/sedentary)
• Relative mobility – e.g. furthest distances travelled from the home, off-farm activity, regularity of visits to markets etc (although some additional “ground-truthing” may be required to assist with this classification through follow-up surveys).