Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Work Attitudes and Spending surveys (WAS) are intended to give insight into household spending. In particular, they focus on whether the husband/head of household has complete control over household decisions, or whether the wife has significant control. They also attempt to explain the causes of women's control, or lack of it, including factors such as earnings, education, attitudes, religion, ethnic group and birthplace.

For the third edition (April 2008), the existing study materials were replaced, and further data from India (gathered in 2007), Nigeria (2003 and 2005), Kenya (2004) and Egypt (2005-2006), and accompanying documentation, were added to the dataset. The data are available as combined files, which include data from all surveys, and also as raw data files for individual countries. See READ file for full details, and for a complete edition history.


Main Topics:

The following types of information are covered by each WAS survey:

• household composition (for example, number of adults);
• household spending;
• household durable goods ownership;
• employment and earnings;
• attitudes, mainly the measurement of 'feminist' or 'machismo' views;
• demographic information, such as age;
• household financial management (i.e. who organises money).

Standard Measures
Likert Scales were used, many of which are based on the British Household Panel Study (BHPS) questionnaire (held at the UK Data Archive under SN 5151).