The unseen burden of women's unpaid labour

In the early 60s when Canadian short story writer, Alice Munro, who died recently, earned some success, a newspaper ran a piece on her, which had a condescending headline the 'housewife who finds time to write short stories'.

- ARCHANA DATTA

The banter fell through Alice and she went on to win a Nobel in literature in 2013.

While another Nobel winner in Economics in 2023, Claudia Goldin, explained in her research that a woman's vocation is not always guided by her choice, but, more often by the 'long-standing societal trends', which build a 'cult of domesticity' around her, idealising her role as an unpaid caregiver.

Not surprising that women spend almost 76.2 per cent of total hours, three times more than men, on unpaid care work (ILO). Of all regions, the Pacific and Asia present the worst scenario, with men performing the lowest share of unpaid care work (1 hour and 4 minutes). In 2018, 606 million working-age women expressed disappointment that they failed to enter the labour market because of the burden of unpaid care work, which was the case for only 41 million men.

In terms of monetary value, women's unpaid work may exceed up to 40 per cent of GDP in some countries (ILO).Social scientists contend that child-bearing, as well as the age and number of children, more than marriage, impede women's entry into the labour market.

Women (aged 25-54) face a wide disparity in labour force participation rate (LFPR), which remains only 61.4 per cent, as against men's 90.6 per cent (World Bank, 2022). While, in the lone women households, with at least one child under 6, economic compulsion lifts women's LFPR to about 65.8 per cent, but, it goes down to 48.7 per cent, when mothers live with a partner and a young child, as the 'male breadwinner' syndrome prevails (UNWomen).

Notwithstanding, the 'breadwinner moms' also bear a heavier load at home, even if they out-earn their husbands' (Pew Research Centre).