by Vijay Garg
Globally, women spend a significant amount of time on unpaid care work, which limits their participation in the labour market and affects economic stability. This phenomenon is deeply rooted in societal norms and expectations, often referred to as the “cult of domesticity,” which idealises women’s roles as unpaid caregivers.
In the early 1960s, when Canadian short story writer Alice Munro began to gain recognition, a newspaper dismissively referred to her as the “housewife who finds time to write short stories.” Munro, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013, exemplifies women’s societal challenges in balancing domestic responsibilities with professional aspirations. Similarly, Claudia Goldin, a Nobel laureate in Economics in 2023, highlighted that women’s career choices are often constrained by long-standing societal trends that prioritize their roles as caregivers over their professional ambitions.
The Extent of Unpaid Care Work
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), women perform nearly 76.2 per cent of total hours of unpaid care work, three times more than men. The situation is particularly dire in the Pacific and Asia, where men contribute the least to unpaid care work, averaging only one hour and four minutes per day. In 2018, 606 million working-age women were unable to enter the labour market due to the burden of unpaid care work, compared to only 41 million men.
The monetary value of women’s unpaid work can be as high as 40 per cent of GDP in some countries (ILO). Social scientists argue that childbearing, as well as the age and number of children, significantly impede women’s labour market participation more than marriage.
Labour Force Participation
Women aged 25-54 face a wide disparity in labour force participation rates (LFPR), which stands at 61.4 per cent compared to 90.6 per cent for men (World Bank, 2022). For single mothers with at least one child under six, economic necessity increases their LFPR to about 65.8 per cent. However, this rate drops to 48.7 per cent for mothers living with a partner and a young child, due to the “male breadwinner” syndrome (UN Women).
Despite being primary earners, “breadwinner moms” still bear a heavier domestic load, even if they out-earn their husbands (Pew Research Center). The “motherhood penalty” persists in the USA, where mothers are six times less likely than non-mothers and 3.35 times less likely than child-free men to be recommended for hire. They are also 114 per cent more likely than fathers to take a career pause (Mom Project, US).
Wage Penalties and Gender Bias
A report by the British Trade Union Association TUC found that men do not face a penalty as parents. Instead, fathers who work full-time experience a wage bonus of 22 per cent when they have children. This disparity is not due to actual differences in productivity but rather to employers’ biased expectations about gender and work, according to Michelle Budig, a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research revealed that men’s earnings increase by more than 6 per cent when they have children, while women’s earnings decrease by 4 per cent per child (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, US, 1979 to 2006).
The Indian Context
In India, the impact of childbirth on women’s labour market participation varies between urban and rural areas. A study collecting Life History Calendar (LHC) data from Karnataka and Rajasthan suggested that rural women do not experience a significant penalty in labour market participation due to the prevalence of informal and flexible employment. However, urban women face a large penalty, with highly educated women or those in regular or salaried jobs experiencing a wage penalty of about 18 per cent after motherhood (Wilde et al., 2010).
The Need for Childcare Facilities
The lack of childcare facilities is a major barrier to gender equality in job markets (UN Women). A macro-econometric analysis of childcare policies in 18 OECD countries (1980-2007) found that high levels of employment protection and longer paid leave are crucial for the survival of working mothers (Thévenon, 2013). An analytical study (ITUC) in seven high-income OECD countries estimated that an investment of 2 per cent of GDP in the care industry could create nearly 13 million new jobs in the US, and 3.5 million in Japan, and boost women’s employment rates by 3.3 to 8.2 percentage points.
Similar research in emerging economies such as Brazil, Costa Rica, China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa suggested that the same level of investment in the health and care sector could create nearly 24 million new jobs in China, 11 million in India, and 4.2 million in Brazil.
Policy Recommendations
The ILO’s recent global “Care at Work” report recommended a sustainable annual investment of over $204 billion, averaging 5.8 per cent of GDP per country, to achieve universal childcare and long-term care services. Feminist economists and proponents of the Purple Economy advocate for recognizing care as an indispensable component of human well-being and call for a “caring and gender-equal economic and social order.”
Conclusion
It is high time that the world fulfils its SDG 2030 commitments and ensures women’s economic justice and equality through appropriate policy formulations and resource allocations. Recognizing and addressing the burden of unpaid care work is essential for achieving gender parity and economic stability.
(The author is a former educator. The ideas are personal.)
