Session 15 Gender, Care Work and Public Policy Professor Maria Floro American University

Session 15 Gender, Care Work
and Public Policy
Professor Maria Floro
American University
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Motivation for today’s session:
Importance of time use and
unpaid care work in:
 poverty reduction and
 formulation, implementation
and evaluation of public
policies - macroeconomic,
fiscal, labor, social policies.
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Of Relevance…..
Gain a deeper understanding of:

Functioning of the economy and survival of
societies cannot be understood without unpaid
work.

Impact of economic policies on unpaid work
and well-being of those who perform them.

What it takes to achieve the goals of women’s
empowerment and gender equality.
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The Challenges



Why is it easy for policymakers to not
pay attention to unpaid work including
caring for sick, children and elderly?
How can these challenges be
addressed?
What can my institution or agency or
work do?
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Gender
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Sex
Gender
WE ARE
WE ARE
Different
Unequal
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Concept of Gender


Gender defines and differentiates the roles, rights,
responsibilities and obligations of women and men.
The biological differences between females and
males are interpreted by society to create a set of
social expectations
 that define the behaviors that are appropriate for
women and men
 that determine women’s and men’s different
access to rights, resources, and power in society.
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Concept of Gender, cont.


VARIATION: The nature and degree of these
gender differences vary from one society to
the next, but they tend to favor men.
PERMEATE ECONOMIC RELATIONS:
Economic institutions and policies can modify
or even exacerbate existing gender
inequalities.
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Some Manifestations of Gender
(Power) Relations

Unequal access to and control over property and even credit and
employment opportunities.

Participation of women and men in decisionmaking within many
families and households.

Unequal participation in political institutions from village to
international levels.

Accepted codes of social conduct that condone and even reward
violence against women.
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Some Outcomes
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Share of women in wage employment in nonagricultural sector (%)
World
Western Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
South-Eastern Asia
Southern Asia
Oceania
Northern Africa
Latin America and the Caribbean
Eastern Asia
Developed
CIS
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
1990 2005
40.0
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50.0
60.0
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Unequal Division of Unpaid Work
Average Minutes per Day by Sex
UK
South
Africa
India
Total
282
Male
202
Female
318
F-M
116
154
80
220
140
160
31
297
266
Sources: UK: Calculated from Short, 2000, Table 2 South Africa: Budlender and Brathaug, 2005, Table 2
India: Calculated from Chakraborty, 2005, Table 3
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Percentage of women ages 15-49 who have
experienced any violence since age 15, 1995-2005
Women ever
beaten by
anyone
Women ever
beaten by a
spouse/partner
Cambodia
23.4
17.5
Haiti
35.2
28.8
India
21
18.9
Nicaragua
32.6
30.2
Zambia
58.7
48.4
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Source: Kishor and Johnson 2004 based on DHS surveys
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Unpaid Work and Care Work
in the Economy
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Exclusion of Unpaid Work


Historical bias against unremunerated work exclusion in labor force statistics across countries,
Conceptualization of "labor" as market work:
1954 International Conference of Labor Force
Statisticians: Defined participation in the labor market
as “being engaged in work for pay or profit”. No
mention of ‘unpaid labor’.
 Focus of economic models and policymaking: size of
marketed output and the labor expended in its
production.
Floro_ASSA 2014 presentation
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Types of Unpaid Work




Subsistence production: production for home use of
goods which in principle could be marketed (food,
clothing, pottery).[SNA]
Household and care work: managing a household
(cooking, cleaning, caring for hh members (sick,
elderly, children), etc.) [non-SNA] except for
Fetching fuel and water [SNA]
Informal and Unpaid Family Work [SNA].
Volunteer or community work: unpaid activity in all
kinds of civic associations, both secular and religious)
[non-SNA]
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Business sector
Formal paid work
Informal Work
Paid and unpaid
Public
Non profit institutions
Formal paid
work
Sector
Formal paid
work
Informal work
Paid and unpaid
Labour Services
Good and services and monetary flows
Unpaid Work and the Market Economy
Volunteer work
Household Sector
Paid work
Unpaid work
Subsistence Work
Work
2014Care
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Practical Difficulties in
Measuring Unpaid Work
definition is vague.
Ex: definition of volunteer work remains
unsettled since the term carries different
meanings in diverse cultures and settings.
 how to measure




via input or output method?
case of multitasking or performance of
simultaneous activities complicates task.
which valuation method to apply to
determine its economic value.
Floro_ASSA 2014 presentation
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Care Work
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About care work
Direct care work can be:
 paid or unpaid,
 market or non-market,
 male or female.
Econ 674 Copyright Floro
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Concept of Care Work




Involves personal attention and face-to-face basis for
extended period of time (very labor-intensive)
Involves both physical and emotional side of work.
Involves persons who are dependent but also healthy
ones.
Role of social expectations and norms – caring
motivation
Econ 674 Copyright Floro
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Implications on Women’s
Employment Experiences




Role conflicts between paid work and unpaid
household work for women.
Women choose jobs that have lower earnings and
fewer benefits but have flexible schedules or allow for
on-site childcare, such as among home-based workers.
Gender stereotypes by employers: Notion that women
are not good, reliable employees, not “ideal workers”.
Discrimination: belief that women tend to be less
committed to jobs and thus treat them differently
(don’t promote, keep and justify lower salaries) etc).
Econ 674 Copyright Floro
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Coping with dual roles as paid
(income earner) and unpaid worker:



Use help from family members including
older children and other kin; or
domestic servant/maid.
Reduce the time they spend in activities
such as sleep, personal care (time
squeeze)
Perform overlapping activities.
Econ 674 Copyright Floro
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Time Use Survey Data: What
they can tell us.

Some examples
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1. Measure and valuation of
childcare in UK (Mullan 2010)


Childcare is a very diverse activity
Careful exploration of the time use
patterns of both parents and children:



Supervisory childcare also counts: use of
context variable e.g. time whereby parents
and children are in the same location.
Childcare activities performed in combination
with another activity, such as cooking,
gardening and watching TV (overlapping work
activities.
Makes use of children’s time-use information
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2. Effect on Children’s Devt:
The case of India

Gender inequalities in the allocation of
household tasks among girls and boys.
School attendance in rural areas drops
much more rapidly with age for girls,
although this is not the case in the
urban areas.
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Parental Time (2)….
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3. Case of Colombia
Colombia passed a law in 2010 requiring the
estimation of the care economy and its inclusion
in the System of National Accounts. The National
Law 1413 requires the government:
“to measure the contributions of women to the
economic and social development of the country
and to serve as fundamental tool for the design
and implementation of public policies”
(Lopez et al. 2013).
Floro_ASSA 2014 presentation
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Some Key Points


Care economy is vital and central to
economic development. It manifests
persistent gender inequalities that
intersect with other forms of
inequalities.
Serious concerns that raise the urgency
to develop a comprehensive strategic
plan addressing care issues.
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Neglect of Care Issues




Prevents the empowerment of women and the
attainment of gender equality.
Underlying tensions in terms of balancing paid
and unpaid work that can lead to chronic
stress, reduced productivity, compromised
quality of care given, and even domestic
violence.
Unmet demand for care for elderly
Unmet demand for care for the sick and
disabled if there are little or no social
provisioning for these services.
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Neglect of Care Issues….




Impacts the economic livelihood of women
workers in terms of lower LF participation and/or
lower earnings.
Crisis of care in the form of lower life expectancy,
chronic malnutrition and illness, and poor quality of
life.
Burden of carework is even more onerous or
heavy among poor households.
Macroeconomic and sectoral policies e.g. trade,
investment, labor, fiscal and credit policies can
maintain and even reinforce gender biases and
inequalities.
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THANK YOU.
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