Care work

Abstract

Domestic and care work—both paid and unpaid—have been a central issue for feminist economics. Feminist economists have situated the analysis of care work within broader institutions and with due attention to intersections of gender with class, race, nationality, and other social differences. This chapter discusses care work as encompassing both direct and indirect care and unpaid and paid care work. Unpaid caregivers’ relative disadvantage puts them in a subordinate position both in terms of intra-household bargaining and in the labor market. Feminist economists have long argued that domestic labor has constrained women’s involvement in the labor market work, and women’s responsibility for domestic work is a major source of women’s oppression. The gender division of unpaid work leads to a “second shift” for women who also work for pay. Feminist macroeconomists argue that fiscal policy can be used to reduce the burden of unpaid household work on women.