Research Topic: The research topic is focused on women’s non-monetary contributions to supporting their families. The analysis will primarily focus on housework and similar unpaid work performed primarily by women in recent decades as well as the ways of recognizing and valuating these efforts in order to properly and accurately determine the economic aspect of these contributions.
Research Question: What are the economic and social implications of unpaid housework performed by women in order to support their families, and how these efforts can be recognized?
In the recent three to four decades, women became more integrated and involved in the labor market, but the current economic valuation systems do not take into consideration one of the most important and impactful aspects of labor, which is unpaid labor, such as housework or household labor. These activities and efforts are predominantly made by women, who need to take care of their families as well as perform their job responsibilities at paid work. The given research will primarily focus on addressing the importance of recognizing and properly evaluating unpaid work done by women.
Literature Review
The current literature clearly outlines the fact that the contribution of unpaid work done by women has a major impact on familiar and societal health and well-being. It is stated that the modern economic valuation systems, such as the United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA), do not properly value the economic influence of household labor and other unpaid work performed by women (Waring, 2003). Another source claims that “gender ideology partially explains the differences between countries regarding women’s and men’s involvement in paid and unpaid work” (Nordenmark, 2004, p. 233). In other words, factors, such as gender ideologies, determine the labor imbalance between women and men in regards to their work outside paid one. In addition, the increased load of unpaid work begins at an early age because females under 18 years old do twice as much housework as males at the same age (Modern Parenthood, 2013).
Moreover, the UNSNA did not initially account for unpaid work done by women, which was partly changed due to the collective efforts of second-wave feminists to include non-monetary activities (Messac, 2018). The labor volume in the recent decades did not decrease and even might have increased because labor force participation for women grew from 60% to 80% from the 1980s to the 2000s (Goldin, 2006). In other words, household labor remained stagnant, and paid labor was added on top of the former, which led to greater pressure on women. For example, it is stated that women’s dissatisfaction at work is partly or fully caused by the fact that unpaid household work is more substantial among women than men (Enberg et al., 2007). Therefore, modern policies should support working mothers, who have the highest level of labor volume, which is comprised of both unpaid and paid work (Donnelly et al., 2016). In addition, housework labor or labor done outside paid work is more significant and impactful, which are mainly done by women (Coleman, 1998).
It is important to note that gender narratives also impact the feminization of certain technologies and related work, where women are more likely to be paid less (Boyer & England, 2008). The shift in social framework needs to return to valuing unpaid work done by women as integral since the current narrative labels homemakers as dependent and non-essential (Boydston, 1994). Therefore, it is critical to design and develop alternative systems of national accounts (SNA) to properly reflect unpaid work done by women (Antonopoulos & Hirway, 2010).
Economic Implications
It is important to note that the collection of data on unpaid work hours is a fairly challenging task, which is why the given research will primarily derive the lower estimates on the basis of available data. One should be aware that despite the fact that the majority of household labor and other family sustenance labor is done mostly by women, men are also partly involved in these activities (Coleman, 1998). In other words, the recognition of housework is in the best interest of both men and women since these hours of work are not evaluated by the modern valuation systems or valuated in a highly limited and restricted manner (Antonopoulos & Hirway, 2010). In addition, the increased load of unpaid work begins at an early age because females under 18 years old do twice as much housework as males at the same age (Modern Parenthood, 2013). Therefore, gender narratives are highly impactful because they impact the daily lives of young females more heavily than of males (Nordenmark, 2004).
It is estimated that men, in general, women are performing fewer hours of paid work and more hours of unpaid one, but the total load of labor is still more in regards to women (Enberg et al., 2007). The findings suggest that the lower estimate of unrecognized hours of housework and family sustenance labor are around 22 hours per week (Modern Parenthood, 2013). Considering the minimum wage is $7.25 and the number of families in the United States, which is 122.8 million, and it does not include unmarried couples, the economic impact of the labor performed by women is equal to $940,156,800,000 or $940 billion annually (Messac, 2018). If the estimation process takes into consideration the unpaid work done by men, which is approximately 11 hours per week, then the total valuation will be equal to $1,410,235,200,000 or $1.4 trillion. One should be cautious of the fact that these estimates are the lowest numbers since they do not account for unmarried couples, multiple females living in a family unit, and the real economic value of labor performed because not all of the housework and family sustenance activities are valued at minimum wage rate. For example, an average hourly wage of a babysitter, a cook, and a cleaner is around $15 in the United States, which means that the more accurate but lower estimate will be around $1.945 trillion for women and almost $3 trillion for both genders. In other words, considering the United States GDP for 2019 is $21 trillion, it means that, at minimum, one-seventh of the economic output is unrecognized (Messac, 2018). However, one should also take into consideration that the housework and family sustenance labor cannot be solely measured monetarily since they have major social implications, such as familial health, well-being, and quality of life improvements.
Social Implications
Another important aspect of the given research analysis is gender narratives because they determine the allocation of unpaid labor among genders, and thus, the current situation shows that females are loaded with twice as much labor as males from a young age. The main difficulty in overcoming gender inequality is that it is socially and culturally legitimized by gender stereotypes. The system of gender stereotypes and traditional patriarchal gender representations operates and is reproduced at all levels from individual to macrosocial or institutional (Donnelly et al., 2016). The dominant cultural patterns set the range of actions for both state bodies and the media, public organizations, political parties, and other components of civil society. This explains why women’s organizations do not always advocate for achieving gender equality, women journalists often make sexist programs and write sexist articles, and women voters do not vote for women candidates for parliament. There are three interrelated blocks of problems in the socio-economic sphere that have a clearly expressed gender nature, which are unpaid work in the household, gender segregation in employment, and the feminization of poverty. The first two can be viewed as causes, and the third as their consequence (Boyer & England, 2008). Moreover, the institutions work only with the last problem, leaving the solution to the first two elements of the market.
Alternative Valuation
The current valuation system is the United Nations System of National Accounts or UNSNA. The experts suggest that an alternative valuation system would be GPI or genuine progress indicator, which values the performed labor both monetarily and non-monetarily (Waring, 2003). Research and measurement of unpaid work are carried out using a method known in sociology, such as time surveys. Additionally, these diaries also take into account information about the context of the activity, that is, where people did this or that action, with whom they did and what other actions they did at the same time, how often the actions were performed, as well as about the socio-economic characteristics of the situation.
A thorough analysis of the structure of unpaid work shows that, in the main, in all countries, women spend their unpaid time on a variety of activities with a predominance of the share of working in the kitchen and caring for children, while for men the time is distributed fairly evenly with significantly less time devoted to unpaid work. One of the main reasons for the increase in unpaid work for the family is the birth of children, which immediately increases the share of parents’ domestic work by 15-30% (Donnelly et al., 2016). Research shows that part of the prevalence of female participation in unpaid work is due to the shorter working hours for women. It is important that gender differences in time spent on paid and unpaid work are minimized. On the other hand, women are legally given the right to shorter working hours or part-time work, which is some compensation for a large amount of time devoted to domestic work.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the economic implications of unpaid labor performed by women are massive, which is at least equal to one-tenth of the entire GDP of the United States. The social implication is manifested in the fact that women are forced to do these activities due to prominent gender narratives of a society, which either increases the total labor load on women or leaves less time for unpaid work. The key factors are unpaid work in the household, gender segregation in employment, and the feminization of poverty. The current valuation system is UNSNA or the United Nations System of National Accounts, which does not recognize or limitedly recognizes these efforts, which is why alternative valuation systems, such as GPI, can be integrated in order to properly reflect both monetary and non-monetary implications of women’s unpaid labor through a more in-depth assessment in well-being and health of the families.
Research Paper Worksheet
What are the economic and social implications of unpaid housework performed by women in order to support their families, and how these efforts can be recognized?
Unpaid work – labor performed by an individual, which brings value, but does not have a source of monetary reward.
UNSNA – the United Nations System of National Accounts – a system of valuation.
Gender narratives – performance and perception of gender in society.
Gender narratives are male and female, whereas UNSNA will not be measured, but used as a central system of valuation. Unpaid work can be measured in hours and pay per hour.
The independent variable will be derived from the system of valuation and unrecognized hours of labor. The dependent variable is the minimum amount of payment for these hours through recognition. The intervening variables will be based on the system of valuation.
Unpaid work – unrecognized hours multiplied by a minimum wage and average wage. The system will determine the recognition of unpaid work.
Gender ideology, unpaid work, household labor, societal attitudes, egalitarianism, gender narratives.
References
Antonopoulos R., & Hirway I. (2010). Unpaid work and the economy. Palgrave Macmillan.
Boydston, J. (1994). Home and work: Housework, wages, and the ideology of labor in the early republic. Oxford University Press.
Boyer, K., & England, K. (2008). Gender, work and technology in the information workplace: from typewriters to ATMs. Social & Cultural Geography, 9(3), 241–256. Web.
Coleman, M. (1998). Homemaker as worker in the United States. Challenge, 41(6), 75-87. Web.
Donnelly, K., Twenge, J. M., Clark, M. A., Shaikh, S. K., Beiler-May, A., & Carter, N. T. (2016). Attitudes toward women’s work and family roles in the United States, 1976–2013. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(1), 41–54. Web.
Enberg, B., Stenlund, H., Sundelin, G., & Öhman, A. (2007). Work satisfaction, career preferences and unpaid household work among recently graduated health-care professionals? A gender perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 21(2), 169–177. Web.
Goldin, C. (2006). The quiet revolution that transformed women’s employment, education, and family. The American Economic Review, 96(2), pp. 1-21. Web.
Messac, L. (2018). Outside the economy: Women’s work and feminist economics in the construction and critique of national income accounting. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 46(3), 552–578. Web.
Modern Parenthood. (2013). Time in work and leisure, patterns by gender and family structure. Pew Research Center. Web.
Nordenmark, M. (2004). Does gender ideology explain differences between countries regarding the involvement of women and of men in paid and unpaid work? International Journal of Social Welfare, 13(3), 233–243. Web.
Waring, M. (2003). Counting for something! Recognising women’s contribution to the global economy through alternative accounting systems. Gender & Development, 11(1), 35–43. Web.
Annotated Bibliography
Antonopoulos R., & Hirway I. (2010). Unpaid work and the economy. Palgrave Macmillan.
The book primarily addresses the issues of unpaid work, such as housework performed primarily by women. It also proposes various alternatives to the system of national accounts (SNA), which does not take into account unpaid work and its implications on the economy, and these suggestions can be used in the research. It attempts to “point out some of the interconnections between unpaid work taking place within the institutional setting of the household and the institutions of the market and the state” (Antonopoulos & Hirway, 2010, p. 1).
Boydston, J. (1994). Home and work: Housework, wages, and the ideology of labor in the early republic. Oxford University Press.
The book focuses on the overall decline in recognition of women’s domestic labor, which is essential and integral for the well-being and health of a family unit. The author sheds light on the complex and important issues of the shift from perceiving housework performed by women as critical to perceiving them as non-essential and dependent, which is relevant to the research. The author argues that the capitalistic economy does not reflect the real economy, because it dismisses the value brought by these efforts (Boydston, 1994).
Boyer, K., & England, K. (2008). Gender, work and technology in the information workplace: from typewriters to ATMs. Social & Cultural Geography, 9(3), 241–256. Web.
The article analyzes the development of technology and society, where certain office technologies are feminized with specific economic implications (Boyer & England, 2008). The article can be used in the research in order to illuminate key gender narratives presented in the findings.
Coleman, M. (1998). Homemaker as worker in the United States. Challenge, 41(6), 75-87. Web.
The author primarily addresses the fact that housework labor or labor done outside paid work are more significant and impactful, which are mainly done by women (Coleman, 1998). In addition, the article can be used to argue that housework is not a sole economic activity done by women.
Donnelly, K., Twenge, J. M., Clark, M. A., Shaikh, S. K., Beiler-May, A., & Carter, N. T. (2016). Attitudes toward women’s work and family roles in the United States, 1976–2013. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 40(1), 41–54. Web.
The article investigates the gradual shifts in societal attitudes towards women’s family roles and works in the United States within the last three decades. It concludes that “policymakers should recognize that support for working mothers is now a solid majority position in the United States and design programs for working families accordingly,” which can be used to egalitarianism-derived factors in regard to unpaid work (Donnelly et al., 2016, p. 41).
Enberg, B., Stenlund, H., Sundelin, G., & Öhman, A. (2007). Work satisfaction, career preferences and unpaid household work among recently graduated health-care professionals? A gender perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 21(2), 169–177. Web.
The research article reveals that women’s dissatisfaction at work is partly or fully caused by the fact that unpaid household work is more substantial among women than men (Enberg et al., 2007). The article can be used to understand the modern realities of the dual responsibility of women and the sheer volume of labor done by them.
Goldin, C. (2006). The quiet revolution that transformed women’s employment, education, and family. The American Economic Review, 96(2), pp. 1-21. Web.
The article focuses on analyzing and identifying distinct three stages of evolution in regards to women’s family, education, and employment, which was followed by a quiet revolutionary phase with major implications (Goldin, 2006). The source can be used to support the in-depth analysis of family-related shifts in throughout these shifts.
Messac, L. (2018). Outside the economy: Women’s work and feminist economics in the construction and critique of national income accounting. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 46(3), 552–578. Web.
The author argues that “feminist economists and women’s work were central to both the post-war construction and the late-twentieth-century critique of national income” (Messac, 2018, p. 552). The findings and data from the analysis of the United States, Malawi, and the United Kingdom can be used to assess the late-twentieth century.
Modern Parenthood. (2013). Time in work and leisure, patterns by gender and family structure. Pew Research Center. Web.
The article provides numeric estimates of unpaid labor performed by women and men on a daily basis. It is important to note that these are lower estimates, which do not consider non-household family sustenance labor.
Nordenmark, M. (2004). Does gender ideology explain differences between countries regarding the involvement of women and of men in paid and unpaid work? International Journal of Social Welfare, 13(3), 233–243. Web.
The article addresses the role of gender ideologies in regards to unpaid work, and the findings suggest that “gender ideology has an impact in all the studied countries on the degree to which women and men involve and engage themselves in labour,” and “gender ideology partially explains the differences between countries regarding women’s and men’s involvement in paid and unpaid work” (Nordenmark, 2004, p. 233). The source can be used to explore the impact and dynamics of gender ideologies.
Waring, M. (2003). Counting for something! Recognising women’s contribution to the global economy through alternative accounting systems. Gender & Development, 11(1), 35–43. Web.
The author critiques the current valuation methods of labor, specifically the United Nations System of National Accounts (UNSNA). The sources provide alternative measures of taking into an economic consideration household labor and other unpaid work performed by women, which can be used in order to answer the research question.