Not to get on the female soap box, but I think there are a few data points missing from this equation.

First, it’s true that women work less than men (41 minutes fewer per day in the U.S., according to Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Time Use survey for 2010). However, women also report spending five fewer hours per week on leisure than men. Why? Because they do more housework than men: 49% of women from the Time Use survey report doing housework on the average day, versus only 20% for men.

While women may get pulled away from bean-counting in the office more than their male counterparts, they’re less likely to be headed home to watch the boob tube. Rather, they’re tending to chores and family. And that’s not something standard measures of productivity — measured as economic output per hour worked — take into account. The hours women spend outside the office may not contribute to their companies’ bottom line, but research suggests those hours indirectly contribute to economic output in society, because women who tend to the home rear more productive children bound for the workforce.