Forms Of Unpaid Work Research Articles

WOMEN HAS BEEN AN IMPORTANT SEGMENT OF THE WORKFORCE

The Indian labor market displays several striking features: very low rates of female labor force participation; considerable variance in rates of female labor force participation across Indian states; and a large share of both women and men working in the informal sector. Various types of people work at various types of jobs. A substantial portion of India's workforce historically has been made up of women. The work participation rate of women of India is showing a downward trend in the last few decades. It also signifies that women’s entry or exit of labour market is influenced by non-economic factors also. The study finds that there is neither quantitative nor qualitative improvement in women’s employment over time on account of structural changes in the economy. There is no major occupational diversification in women’s employment despite structural shift of the economy from primary to tertiary sector. Agriculture is still the leading sector in women’s employment. Overcrowding of workforce in agriculture largely as wage labourers, lower earnings, poor literacy levels, large-scale informal employment and most self-employment in the form of unpaid work are indications of women’s disadvantaged position in the labour market. Women are primarily seen as ‘caregivers’ for the family, even when they contribute to the family’s financial needs. This paper tries to find out that the position of women in workplace and in the family.

How Far Does the Diverse Economies Approach Take Us?

How Far Does the Diverse Economies Approach Take Us?

Structural Changes and Quality of Women’s Labour in India

The primary objective of this paper is to look at the trends and pattern of changes in women’s employment structure over years (1983–2018) consequent upon the structural changes in the Indian economy. It also attempts to analyse the quality of women’s labour in terms of select parameters. The study finds that there is neither quantitative nor qualitative improvement in women’s employment over time on account of structural changes in the economy. There is no ‘U’ curve of female labour supply in response to GDP growth and expansion of female literacy, implying that economic growth has not generated adequate jobs for women. It also signifies that women’s entry or exit of labour market is influenced by non-economic factors also. There is no major occupational diversification in women’s employment despite structural shift of the economy from primary to tertiary sector. Agriculture is still the leading sector in women’s employment. The study further reveals that the quality of women’s labour is poor. Overcrowding of workforce in agriculture largely as wage labourers, lower earnings, poor literacy levels, large-scale informal employment and most self-employment in the form of unpaid work are indications of women’s disadvantaged position in the labour market.

Historical patterns of unpaid work in Europe: NTTA results by age and gender

This paper presents an analysis of the age patterns of production, consumption, and net transfers in the form of unpaid work by gender over time. Using the National Time Transfer Accounts (NTTA) methodology, we briefly analyse complete historical results for several European countries. Our main aim is to introduce historical NTTA results, which are freely available to the public for further usage on the AGENTA database. The results of our analysis show that the evolution of age patterns over time differed between men and women, and was highly affected by different demographic trends, as well as by the specific institutional background of each country. Our findings indicate that despite the differences in age patterns over time and across countries, two main characteristics of these patterns did not change: i.e. transfers of unpaid work flowed first from women to men, and second from the working-age population to children and – to a lesser extent – to the elderly.

Rethinking Volunteering as a Form of Unpaid Work

This article aims to problematize the ways in which volunteering is presently conceptualized, theorized, and studied by positioning it as a form of unpaid labor. Over six focal points, the article highlights areas that deserve closer scrutiny: the question of when volunteering is work; the formal–informal and paid–unpaid distinctions of work; the notion of “choice,” especially volunteering as the lack of paid work choices; the assumption that volunteer work is similar to informal work; and a recognition that volunteering consists of many different forms of activities, not just one.

Do Women Still Care? Cohort Changes in US Women's Care for the Ill or Disabled

Increases in women’s labor-force participation and the time families spend at work have reduced the time families have available to care for one another. Recent evidence suggests that responses to these challenges vary for different types of care. While time spent on housework has declined, time devoted to care of children has increased. This paper examines cohort changes in another form of unpaid work, care for ill or disabled friends or family members, and assesses the influence of employment, attitudes, and need for care on age and cohort trends in carework. Using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys, we estimate age and cohort differences in carework among women born between 1922 and 1952. We find a decline in overall levels of carework among more recent birth cohorts of women. However, we do not find cohort changes in the probability that women will provide more intense levels of care, defined as nine or more hours of care per week. The amount of illness and disability among family members partially reduces differences between cohorts, but women’s employment and attitudes about work and family do little to clarify changing patterns of care. Overall, our findings suggest that, even after the large-scale social changes of the twentieth century, women will continue to provide carework when necessary. Thus, the real concern for families is not whether ill or disabled members will have care, but rather, whether their careworkers receive the institutional support required to successfully balance paid and unpaid work.

Comparative Configurations of Care Work across Europe

The activity of work takes place in a variety of socio-economic relations, shifting over time across the boundaries between different sectors of employment (public, private, not-for-profit or voluntary) and forms of unpaid work (domestic, community, voluntary).Taking the social care work of older people as a research probe, this article explores linkages between paid and unpaid work across key forms of provision (public sector, market, family/household and voluntary sector). We analyse the relative importance of the different providers of elder care in four European countries in order to highlight the relationship and interactions between paid and unpaid modes of care work. As well as revealing contrasting national configurations, our findings show clear interconnections between work undertaken in differing socio-economic modes, such that what goes on in one sector impacts upon what goes on in another. Building on a `total social organization of labour' framework, this analysis of a specific field develops further an approach that may also be deployed elsewhere.

Caring for Nothing

Unwaged work is a widespread practice in the pro-market, non-market public and non-profit social services in Canada. Under performance-based models of public management new forms of work organization have standardized social services work and expanded the use of volunteers, including the volunteer labour of paid employees. Increasingly routinized work makes it easier for unwaged volunteers to assume work, and for managers to supervise it. New developments include heightened expectations from management and a willingness of workers to perform volunteer work in their own or other agencies. The article suggests that the unwaged social services workforce operates along a continuum with ‘compulsion’ at one end and ‘coercion’ on the other. As workers’ identities and knowledge base are tied to notions of altruism and caring, and there are often implicit threats to their continued employment, most workers are not refusing unwaged work. Rather they see this and other forms of unpaid work as resistance against an increasingly alienating society, as well as a way to meet the needs of clients, relatives and friends.

Comment on Marnie W. Mueller's "The Economic Determinants of Volunteer Work by Women" (Vol. 1, No. 2)

Previous articleNext article No AccessLetters/CommentsComment on Marnie W. Mueller's "The Economic Determinants of Volunteer Work by Women" (Vol. 1, No. 2)Heidi I. HartmannHeidi I. Hartmann Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 1, Number 3, Part 1Spring, 1976 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/493264 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 13Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1976 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Charlotte Overgaard, Janelle Kerlin A legally‐informed definition of volunteering in nonprofits and social enterprises: Unpaid work meets profit motives, Nonprofit Management and Leadership 32, no.33 (Oct 2021): 429–447.https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21489Charlotte Overgaard Rethinking Volunteering as a Form of Unpaid Work, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 48, no.11 (Nov 2018): 128–145.https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764018809419Charlotte Overgaard, Erik Petrovski, Jonathan Hermansen Volunteer care workers: A case for challenging resource theories on volunteering, Journal of Civil Society 14, no.22 (Jun 2018): 153–172.https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2018.1464708Charlotte Overgaard When to Work for Pay, When Not to: A Comparative Study of Australian and Danish Volunteer Care Workers, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 27, no.22 (Jul 2015): 810–830.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-015-9620-0Heidi Hartmann The Unhappy Marriage of Marxism and Feminism: Towards a More Progressive Union, (Jan 2010): 201–228.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117457_14Marie Eileen Francois The Products of Consumption: Housework in Latin American Political Economies and Cultures, History Compass 6, no.11 (Jan 2008): 207–242.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00502.xFlorence Curimbaba The Dynamics of Women's Roles as Family Business Managers, Family Business Review 15, no.33 (Sep 2002): 239–252.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-6248.2002.00239.xKaye Broadbent Power in the union?, International Journal of Manpower 22, no.44 (Jun 2001): 318–332.https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000005570Cora Baldock Feminist discourses of unwaged work: The case of volunteerism, Australian Feminist Studies 13, no.2727 (Apr 1998): 19–34.https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.1998.9994884Alexander M. Thompson Are All Women Service Volunteers Super-Exploited? The Case of Rural Emergency Medical Service Volunteers, Review of Radical Political Economics 26, no.33 (Aug 2016): 11–19.https://doi.org/10.1177/048661349402600302Denise Bradley "NOT A DEPARTMENTAL STATEMENT": A CASE STUDY OF EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IN THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF TAFE 1978–84, Australian Journal of Public Administration 51, no.33 (Sep 1992): 321–332.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.1992.tb02618.xM. Maconachie Dual-earner couples: Factors influencing whether and when white married women join the labour force in South Africa, South African Journal of Sociology 20, no.33 (Aug 1989): 143–151.https://doi.org/10.1080/02580144.1989.10432145Mary Freifeld Technological change and the ‘self‐acting’ mule : A study of skill and the sexual division of labour, Social History 11, no.33 (May 2008): 319–343.https://doi.org/10.1080/03071028608567661