It Is Time Now To Recognise, Respect And Pay Women's Unpaid Labour

Pay women's unpaid labour: “It is time for you to get married”, said a young man’s mother whose health was slowly leading her to the days when she must stick to the bed. Almost everyone had anticipated this as being the only son in the family, he had to take over the business and get married early, no matter what plans he had future. But why? Because when one bahu is about to retire, a new bahu should replace her soon to perform the feminine and unpaid job of cooking, cleaning and serving the men.

This is the mentality of families in India even today that may want to educate their daughters and sons but always want a bahu who is constricted in the home to do the unpaid and unvalued housework. This hypocrisy is not only a factor that discourages many families from educating their daughters (so that they fit in the marriage market requirements) but also encourages the burden of unpaid work that has been holding women back for a long time in India and globally.

Women spend 352 minutes a day in domestic work while men invest only 51.8 minutes. Yet another report of the year 2020 sated that women spend around 84 per cent of their working hours in unpaid domestic work while men spend 80 per cent of the same on paid work. Moreover, around 81 percent women perform unpaid domestic work, 27.6 percent perform unpaid caregiving and 2 percent are involved as volunteer, trainee or in other unpaid work. This should make it clear that women’s participation in paid work is also low due to the burden of unpaid work. Only 21.8 per cent of women aged 15-59 are involved in paid work in India.

It Is Time Now To Recognise, Respect And Pay Women's Unpaid Labour? Why are women forced to carry the burden of unpaid work? Why aren’t women’s efforts, times and subsequently their lives valued in our society?

Even though the total labour that women, both homemakers and working women, perform in a day is much more than that of men who earn, why aren't women paid for it? Why isn’t housework or any other essential work that demands devotion and time paid and performed by people irrespective of gender?

The major reason why the burden of unpaid labour falls on women is the stereotype that men’s labour deserve pay and a woman's labour is her responsibility. Being a woman, she should be ready to sacrifice herself to fulfil her duties towards her husband and family who provide her with financial and social support. Moreover, any labour performed by women is perceived from the gendered lens and hence considered less significant to be paid and this is mostly prevalent in the informal sectors that force women to work without a paycheck. But this is a tad old patriarchal stereotype that sticks to us like a leach, sucking up the ability to get over patriarchy and use reason and perspective based on equality to understand the world.

There is no denying that domestic work is as much important, demanding and exhausting as the paid work. In fact, the burden and exertion increases for women who have to manage both domestic work and paid work. They are forced to stand on one foot and juggle with paid and unpaid labour devoting equal effort and time. As a result, they face time poverty that only affects their health but also forces them to quit jobs and the paths towards growth and empowerment.

But dear men, accept the fact that the hours that women spend in unpaid labour is an important factor behind your attention and success at work. Women’s devotion to domestic work, parenting and caregiving plays a crucial role in keeping society happy, flourishing and excelling. Moreover, unpaid work accounts for almost 40 per cent of the country’s GDP. If women are encouraged to contribute to the country’s economy, the GDP can grow by 27 per cent.

Hence, it is self-evident that if women's unpaid work is recognised as genuine work that deserves pay, it will not only benefit the family and women themselves but the nation also. And lastly, women no longer need to be dependent on someone else for financial support because the modern changes, infrastructure and mindset are increasingly supporting women empowerment on both financial and social level. So the logic that women must perform unpaid work and care to gain support from the family stands null and void.

Then why shouldn’t their labour which requires more time and devotion be recognised, respected and paid? Why should their hard work be sidelined as unimportant and easy? It is a known fact that a paycheck recognises and adds value to the work that a person performs. So in order to value the unpaid work that women do, it is imperative to compensate for their labour with an equal paycheck. China has taken the lead in making a recent historic judgement about paying a woman for performing housework. Let's hope India follows soon.

Views expressed are author's own