Unpaid work of women
Also called: Non-recognition of women's work · Topic: Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Employment: Growth, Informalisation and Other Issues"
Meaning
This means the large amount of work women do without pay, or for payment in kind. It includes cooking, fetching water and fuelwood, and working on family farms. Much of it is not counted as economic activity, so women workers are undercounted in employment data (Class 11). This makes women's economic role look smaller than it is, and it is one reason India's female participation figures are low. Class 11 asks whether housewives should be counted as contributing to GNP.
Example
A woman in Rajasthan spends hours every day fetching water and fuelwood and cooking for the family. None of this is counted in GNP, so surveys do not record her as a worker.
Don't confuse with
- Unpaid family worker: a helper in a family enterprise, such as Meena helping in her husband's cloth shop, is counted as a worker. Housework alone does not make someone a worker.
Related concepts
- Female labour force participation rate
- U-shaped female labour force participation
- Unpaid care work
- Care work
- Double burden
- Feminisation of agriculture
- Gender wage gap
- Glass ceiling