Unpaid Work Research Articles

How to measure inequality of opportunity: The axial institutions index

The article presents a critical analysis of indices and indicators of gender equality and suggests a new comprehensive approach to measuring gender equality of opportunity within axial institutions, which are family, labor market, education, science, public and corporate governance. Whereas the main gender indices measure inequality of access to resources, the axial institutions index measures equality of opportunity using the concept of agency. The key innovations are as follows: the inclusion of the institution of family and the gender division of unpaid domestic work as the basis for gender inequality of opportunities; horizontal segregation in labor markets and in education by calculating the average gap in the share of women and men with different educational profile; inclusion of an institute of science, including academia decision-making, inclusion of an institute of corporate governance (along with the state one). As a result, the index of axial institutions is visualized in the form of a hexagon, which describes the specifics of the model of gender equality in Russia.

What are the factors that have influenced the increase of unpaid care work during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kosovo?

This study examines whether unpaid care work has increased after the COVID-19 pandemic and how it hinders progress made toward gender equality. It includes data from a sample commissioned by UNDP Kosovo, using 1417 respondents. The increase in unpaid care work in Kosovo has been influenced by demographic and socioeconomic characteristics like gender, age, marital status, ethnicity, area, and family composition, as examined through probit regression. Women and individuals who are married or cohabiting with a partner are more likely to have experienced increased hours of unpaid care work related to household chores during the COVID-19 pandemic. Older individuals, Albanians (possibly due to stronger preexisting support networks and higher representation), and Prishtina residents (potentially benefiting from greater access to paid help and being in the capital) are less likely to have increased hours of unpaid care work. This paper highlights the urgent need for sustainable policies recognizing and addressing the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work on women, particularly during crises. Investing in accessible childcare services, promoting flexible work arrangements, and encouraging equitable distribution of domestic responsibilities within households are crucial steps toward mitigating gender inequality and fostering a more resilient society.

Zombie Startups: Time, Labour and Value in Singapore’s Innovative Entrepreneurship ‘Ecosystem’

ABSTRACT Zombie startups – which neither grow nor die, but persistently breakeven and inexplicably refuse to fold – are a staple presence in startup sectors globally. While dominant business discourses dismiss them as aberrantly misguided ventures, I draw on anthropological understandings of the labour of time to show how zombies are integral to the startup sector’s temporal logics. Startup sectors run on the interplay between what scholars have termed ‘the time of investment’ and ‘the time of speculation.’ Following a startup in Singapore through five years of unprofitable operation, my ethnography shows how zombies are produced by and, in turn, contribute to maintaining these temporalities. By connecting the value that successful startups create to the unpaid labour that un-succeeding startups do to maintain the sector’s timescape, the article demonstrates how anthropology’s attentiveness to time can surface new forms of relationality that are emerging with this globally expanding form of entrepreneurship.

‘Women stay behind and grow the food’: Agricultural productivity and the interstices of petty commodity production and reproductive labour in Tanzania

AbstractInspired by the work of Carmen Diana Deere, this paper examines how an analysis of the work of rural production, even when gendered, is compromised if it does not incorporate reproductive labour. The paper presents estimates of the gender yield gap in agricultural crop productivity in Tanzania, along with the statistical causes of the gender yield gap, in order to demonstrate what is and why it matters. The paper then shows that the gender yield gap cannot be understood without interrogating how the reproductive labour of unpaid care and domestic work limits the time for productive activities available to women who have day‐to‐day decision‐making managerial control over plots of land. In this light, the paper suggests a way of rethinking the basic analytical frameworks of agrarian political economy in ways that are consistent with and incorporate the theoretical insights of Carmen Diana Deere. The implications of the analysis are stark: it should not be assumed that all members of an agrarian household share an identical class location, as remains far too often the default assumption in agrarian political economy.

Economic Valuation of Women's Unpaid Household Service Work in Bangladesh

This short note estimates the economic value of women’s unpaid household service work in Bangladesh using data from the Time Use Survey 2021 of BBS. This survey collected detailed information 17,772 respondents (10,024 female and 7,748 male) from 8,000 households on how individuals aged 15 years and older spent their time over a 24-hour period in a day on various activities. Productive time of all household members is divided into three categories: i) household chores (e.g. cooking, cleaning, etc.); ii) caregiving services for household members; and iii) paid and self-employed work. The first two categories comprise unpaid household service work. Data show that women and men spent 7 hours and 6.9 hours on productive work, respectively. In order to estimate the total economic value of women’s unpaid work, we follow an input-based replacement cost approach with generalist wage rates. Our estimate shows that the valuation of women’s unpaid care work is BDT 5,307 billion, which is equivalent to 14.8 per cent of the GDP in 2021. This figure is a meagre 2.8 per cent of GDP for men.

Can men unburden women from unpaid care work? Evidence from Burundi.

Abstract Background: Understanding gender inequalities in agriculture is essential for women's economic empowerment, especially in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture is the mainstay of countries' economies. Despite women's significant contributions to agricultural production, gender disparities persist, particularly when it comes to access to resources. Women also undertake unpaid care work, which remains unrecognized in public policies. This paper explores the factors that encourage men to participate in unpaid care work, thereby supporting women and reducing the opportunity cost of their engagement in economic activities. Methods: Data collected from a random sample of 946 farm families across eight provinces in Burundi is analyzed. Additionally, insights from a Rapid Care Analysis are integrated with this dataset. Using a logit model, we analyze the factors that influence the likelihood of men engaging in unpaid care work. Results: Our findings reveal that, on average, women in Burundi work 13 hours per day, with 7 hours allocated to productive/market work and 6 hours to unpaid care work. In contrast, men spend 7 hours on productive/market work without dedicating any time to care work. The results of the logit regression underscore factors such as education level, participation in plant clinics, income level, and household size positively influence the likelihood of men engaging in unpaid care work. Conclusions: Based on these findings, we advocate for improved access to education and the expansion of programs that integrate components aimed at addressing gender disparities. These initiatives hold the potential to foster greater male involvement in unpaid care work, thereby alleviating the burden on women and facilitating their increased participation in economic activities.

Land, natural resources and the social reproduction of South Africa's ‘relative surplus population’

AbstractIn the past few decades, there has been a renewed interest by feminist scholars in social reproduction. Global South scholars have argued that in agrarian societies of the global South that are marked by a high prevalence of surplus population, social reproduction is largely the responsibility of households, facilitated through unpaid gendered labour that is mostly performed by women. In this article, I draw from the Mhlopheni case of former labour tenants who were evicted and later re‐claimed their land in South Africa to demonstrate the centrality of land in social reproduction. I argue that three processes are important and aid social reproduction: (i) land redistribution to the dispossessed, (ii) socially embedded tenure arrangements and (iii) unpaid gendered labour within households which is largely performed by women. These three processes reinforce each other. It is not just land that is crucial for social reproduction, but how that land is used, controlled, accessed and held, and the gendered labour required to turn resources into consumable goods that enable people to live. To support my argument, I draw on empirical evidence collected between 2020 and 2022 where I conducted 56 in‐depth interviews, four focus group discussions and a survey of 32 households.

Analysis of urban metabolism in an informal settlement using the MuSIASEM method in Lima

By 2050, 68% of the global population will reside in cities, driving rapid urban growth and intensifying demand for scarce ecological resources within the Water-Food-Energy nexus. Social metabolism quantifies energy and material transformations with a social focus, building upon urban metabolism. Its application in resource-scarce informal settlements (ISs) has the potential to enhance their sustainability significantly. As community dynamics evolve, acknowledging society as a dynamic variable within this framework becomes increasingly relevant. Our study employs the Multi-Scale Integrated Analysis of Societal and Ecosystem Metabolism (MuSIASEM) framework, focusing on key variables: human activity, land use, money, energy, water, waste, and food. Based on surveys, interviews, GIS datasets, and statistical information, the study investigates the Ciudad de Gosen IS in Lima, Peru. The results show that, in the socio-economic dimension, 43% of the time employed is directed to the unpaid work sector. Notably, 71% of women and 29% of men spend a mean of 44 h/week/person caring for children or elderly. In the paid work sector, there are gender asymmetries; men have a salary 54% higher than women. In the ecological dimension, more than 78% of the homes have access to basic services, unlike other informal settlements in Latin America and Africa.

Family Restrictions at Work

This paper analyzes one of the causes of the current gender-unbalanced situation in the labor market: the discrimination that individuals face at work due to their commitment to unpaid care work. It aims at finding mechanisms that may induce a change from the current unbalanced situation to a world in which males and females are found in more equal shares in all professions and at all levels. I construct a formal model that includes the heterogeneity of individuals regarding their family commitments and I investigate how it affects the individual’s optimal labor market participation. The welfare of individuals with commitment to family duties is reduced for two different reasons: for not being able to participate as much in the labor market and thus receive a lower labor income and for not being able to contribute as much to their family commitments. I compare the results for the female and male sections of the society and I illustrate the observed gender gaps in terms of labor market participation, income levels, and the overall utility obtained. I find that even though the gender wage gap may be alleviated with reductions in the cost associated to unpaid care work, the gender utility gap will persist.

On the Interplay Between Duration of Employment, Relational Quality and Wages—Results About Non-Family Farm Workers in Switzerland

Our knowledge on non-family farm workers has been hampered by a lack of reliable and relevant data. This study tackled this problem by asking Swiss managers of fruit, wine and vegetable farms about their employees. Using a dataset of 921 employees, we explain the duration of the labour contract, the level of wages and the relational quality between employers and workers. The level of wages and other resources like shelter are linked to employment duration but also to social factors like joint social events or the perception of relational quality by employers. Workers with the liberty to allocate their labour time have better relationships with their employers. The best wages are paid to full-time male employees with agricultural education residing in Switzerland. The fact that Swiss citizens receive a significant reduction in their payment compared to foreigners may point to a grey zone between unpaid family labour and market-based employment relations.

Discovering the Contributions of Academic Wives to the Development of Labour Law: Liesel Kahn-Freund

Abstract This article’s starting point is a strand of historical and sociological studies literature on ‘academic wives’ which reveals the social and, above all, unpaid labour that facilitated an academic career up until the mid-twentieth century. The article then draws on primary and secondary sources in order to trace the life of Otto Kahn-Freund’s wife, Elisabeth (Liesel) Kahn-Freund. We suggest that Liesel was an indispensable facilitator of her husband’s career. She provided valuable scholarly and intellectual support; by taking on responsibility for domestic tasks and care responsibilities, she gave her husband uninterrupted time and space to build his network, travel internationally, and, perhaps most importantly, concentrate on and pursue his research. In doing so, she, and many like her, played a significant albeit largely unrecognised role in the creation of labour law as we now know it. A better understanding of the labour performed by an “academic wife” provides a more nuanced picture of where labour law has come from and the factors that went into its creation. It also encourages labour law scholars to re-evaluate what kind of labour is recognised as part of labour law and is the focus of future labour law scholarship.

Making Midwifery Services Accessible to People of Low SES: A Qualitative Descriptive Study of the Barriers Faced by Midwives in Ontario

Midwifery care is associated with health benefits for disadvantaged groups but continues to be accessed less frequently in Ontario by people who are of lower socio-economic status (SES). We conducted a qualitative descriptive study investigating the work midwives do to make midwifery care accessible to people of low SES and explored the barriers they encounter in doing this work. We interviewed 13 Ontario midwives who serve people of low SES in a wide range of clinical settings. Participants faced multiple challenges in their work to make midwifery care more accessible. They described barriers that they had encountered which pertained to the nature of the work itself, to professional and organizational factors, and to systemic factors. Midwives engaged in this work are deeply committed to it and take on extra unpaid work. The barriers they face threaten the sustainability of their work, and as a result, many participants identified a high risk of burnout. Our findings provide new insight into ways in which gaps in the curriculum of undergraduate midwifery education, lack of opportunities for mentorship, and debate within the midwifery profession about who is suitable for midwifery care serve as barriers to midwives taking on a greater role in providing care to people of low SES and particularly to those who struggle to access primary maternity care services. Systemic changes are needed to overcome these barriers and to expand the work of making midwifery care more accessible while ensuring its sustainability. This article has been peer reviewed.

Female Labor-Force Participation as Suicide Prevention: A Population Study in Taiwan

Objective Female labor-force participation (FLFP) has been theorized as contributing to higher suicide rates, including among women. Evidence on this relationship, however, has been mixed. This study explored the association between FLFP and suicide in an understudied context, Taiwan, and across 40-years. Methods Annual national labor-participation rates for women ages 25–64, and female and male suicide-rates, for 1980–2020, were obtained from Taiwan’s Department of Statistics. The associations between FLFP rates and sex/age-stratified suicide-rates, and between FLFP rates and male-to-female suicide-rates ratios were assessed via time-series regression-analyses, accounting for autoregressive effects. Results Higher FLFP rates were associated with lower female suicide-rates (ß = −0.06, 95% CI (Credibility Interval) = [−0.19, −0.01]) in the adjusted model. This association held in the age-stratified analyses. Associations for FLFP and lower male suicide-rates were observed in the ≥45 age-groups. FLFP rates were significantly and positively associated with widening male-to-female suicide-rates ratios in the adjusted model (ß = 0.24, 95% CI = [0.03, 0.59]). Conclusion This study’s findings suggest that FLFP protects women from suicide, and point to the potential value of FLFP as a way of preventing suicide. In Taiwan, employed women carry a double-load of paid and family unpaid care-work. Child care-work is still done by mothers, often with grandmothers’ support. Therefore, this study’s findings contribute to evidence that doing both paid work and unpaid family care-work has more benefits than costs, including in terms of suicide-protection. Men’s disengagement from family care-work may contribute to their high suicide rates, despite their substantial labor-force participation.

A repeated cross-sectional study of daily activities of autistic adults.

It is crucial to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the types of daily activities autistic adults typically engage in. However, previous research has almost exclusively focused on vocational or education activities. Further, it remains unclear how and whether specific daily activities participation rates change proportionally over time, vary by gender, or compare to nationally representative data. Utilizing eight annual data waves from the Netherlands Autism Register (NAR) this study aims to bridge this gap. Participants were 2449 autistic adults who indicated their participation in 18 daily activities. Results suggest that autistic adults engaged most frequently in vocational activities (e.g., paid employment, study) and participation rates were stable over time. Participation rates in non-vocational activities (e.g., hobbies, homemaking) fluctuated proportionally over time, with reports of no structured daytime activities reducing over time. Labor force participation amongst NAR participants was significantly lower than Dutch population data for the same time periods. Unemployment rates fluctuated, and were significantly higher than population data, but not for all time points. Females compared to males were overrepresented in unpaid daily activities (e.g., study, volunteer, housemaker) and work incapacitation, and underrepresented in paid employment. Employment differences in gender corresponded to national data. These findings characterize more clearly the daily activities of autistic adults, and highlights areas where support may have greater impact (e.g., females in employment).

Feminization of equity deserving work in the third sector

Non-profit work plays a vital role in connecting policy and community, as well as providing essential services in Canada. However, evidence suggests that despite being often engaged in equity seeking work, many non-profit organizations remain sites of inequity and marginalization among service provider staff. In this qualitative study, researchers conducted interviews with representatives from 60 organizations across the province of Alberta, Canada. Using intersectionality and thematic analysis, the study identified three key themes across issues related to the feminization of gender-equity seeking work in the third sector. First, economic exploitation, including low pay across the non-profit sector, and pay discrepancies across positions within non-profit work, impact staff in gendered and racialized ways. Second, uneven labour expectations compound exploitation through failures of performative Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), unpaid labour expectations, and gender bias both within and outside of organizational structure. Third, service provider capacities are being restricted through staff mental health challenges and burnout, staff use of the services they provide clients, and challenges with worker retention. Organizations and funders may address these inequities by demanding transparency in promotion policies to ensure women and gender-diverse people, particularly those who are racialized, have fair access to management and leadership positions, as well as by reforming funding structures to encourage more equitable pay.

Time poverty, health and health-related behaviours in a Southern European city: a gender issue

BackgroundDespite its growing interest, time poverty is a neglected issue in public health analysis and policies. The objectives of this study were: (1) to analyse gender differences in paid, unpaid...

Expanding boundaries: The Impact of kindergarten availability on women's employment in China

This paper examines the causal effects of kindergarten availability on female employment outcomes in China. Using a regression discontinuity design based on the eligibility rules for kindergarten attendance, we find that kindergarten eligibility increases the probability of rural mothers working in non-agricultural sectors and their working hours in non-agricultural sectors, mainly by reducing time spent on agricultural and unpaid domestic work. However, we do not find a significant effect for urban mothers, possibly due to the availability of private childcare options. We also show that the impact of kindergarten eligibility on rural mothers' non-agricultural employment is stronger for those from low-income households, nuclear families, and with high exposure to traditional gender norms. Moreover, we provide evidence that kindergarten eligibility increases the non-agricultural employment of co-residing grandmothers in rural areas.

Women’s economic underdevelopment in Pakistan: The intersection of gender and female labour force participation

BACKGROUND: Women’s low economic participation in Pakistan and even lower in the formal sector is a perpetual phenomenon leading to their underdevelopment, which has microeconomic and macroeconomic implications. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the nature of women’s work and the intersection of their non-market and market activities at micro, meso, and macro levels which influences women’s chances and choices of decent economic participation. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the interdependence of women’s market and non-market work to explore how gender intersects with their economic autonomy. METHODS: Using qualitative approach, in-depth interviews of 30 purposely selected respondents from the informal sector were thematically analysed. RESULTS: Results indicated that the interdependence of women’s non-market and market work is the outcome of the gendered dichotomy that creates work-life conflict to create women’s economic dependence and male hegemony. Moreover, although a common phenomenon, women from underprivileged backgrounds are more likely to bear the brunt of systemic deprivation leading to economic underdevelopment. CONCLUSIONS: Pakistan’s inherently masculinised society and economy mutually benefit from women’s unpaid and informal work. Facilitated through gender norms, the patriarchal social ideology and the capitalist economic system collaborate to exploit women and their work in both domains.

Careworn: The Economic History of Caring Labor

Economists ignore caring labor since most is provided unpaid. Disregard is unjust, theoretically indefensible, and probably misleading. Valuation requires estimates of time spent and the replacement or opportunity costs of that time. I use the maintenance costs of British workers, costs which cover both the material inputs into upkeep and the domestic services needed to turn commodities into livings, to isolate the costs of paid domestic labor. I then impute the value of unpaid domestic labor from these market equivalents, and aggregate across households without domestic servants. Historically, unpaid domestic labor represented c. 20 percent of total income, a contribution that suggests the need to revise some standard narratives.

Regional Analysis of Gender Inequality in the Kazakh Labor Market in the Context of Sustainable Development

Kazakhstan demonstrates its commitment to promoting gender equality and works closely with the global community. Over the past decade, the gender gap in the structure of the labor force of the Republic of Kazakhstan has narrowed slightly. However, gender gaps persist. Women in Kazakhstan make up slightly more than half of the country’s total population. Still, their contribution to the republic’s economic performance, growth, and well-being is significantly below its potential. Access to the Republic’s gender statistics is essential and critical for studying and tracking changes in gender inequality. This article examines the gender dynamics of the labor market of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the macro and micro levels using a geographic information system (GIS). GIS tools provide display and analysis capabilities that are underutilized in workforce development, monitoring, and management. In this study, the authors tried to model spatial indicators of gender inequality in the labor market of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study results show that the employment rate and the level of women’s wages are primarily related to the gender segregation of vocational education, which lays the foundation for sectoral differentiation of employment with different geographical distributions. The greater competitiveness of women in the labor market of Kazakhstan is also hampered by the so-called “glass ceiling” or low accessibility to leadership positions. The wage gap between men and women in the republic has remained unchanged for a long time and shows no signs of reduction. In addition, such an important element of the labor market as unpaid domestic work, which is carried out mainly by women, remains unrecognized.