Double burden
Topic: Equality and Social Justice · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 3 "Equality"
Meaning
Double burden is a feminist term. Many women work outside the home and still carry almost all the housework. Yet they have little or no say in decisions taken in public life. Feminists use the term to challenge the divide between "public" and "private" life. Their slogan "the personal is political" means that unequal work inside the home is a question of justice too.
Example
The Time Use Survey 2024 found that on a normal day, 83.1% of women do unpaid domestic work, compared with 26.4% of men. Women aged 15-59 who do this work spend about 305 minutes a day on it, often on top of paid jobs.
Don't confuse with
- Patriarchy: patriarchy is the whole social system that values men more than women and gives men power over women. The double burden is one result of that system.