What is care work? It is a service that takes up mental and physical energy, and time. It includes household work as well as care for children, elderly, ill or less-abled people. As a necessary component of our society, it contributes to the overall functioning of all our social, economic and political activities. Ideally, care work would therefore be equally distributed between all people to ensure a well-balanced system. However, this is unfortunately rarely the case. A widespread misconception that care work is first and foremost women’s responsibility has resulted in a disproportionate division of unpaid labour across the globe. In Kosovo, for example, it is estimated that more than 70% of women do the household work by themselves.[1]

Caring is considered to be a woman’s (and girl’s) job, done for free.

Most care responsibilities weigh upon women’s shoulders. This highly unequal distribution of labour is often justified by a range of stereotypical gender roles and an essentialising „naturalist“ discourse that presumes all women have an inherent tendency to care work.  Arguing that all women enjoy this work and are even naturally inclined to do it, further normalises the gap between paid work and unpaid work. In addition, the absence of public facilities and lack of social protection strengthen this unequal division of care work. Carrying the main responsibility for care work in their home is a structural barrier that prevents women from accessing other forms of employment.

In Kosovo, women’s participation in the formal labour force is among the lowest in the world (18.1%). [2]  

Women with high responsibility for unpaid care work are more likely to have lower levels of formal economic activity. Regional differences in Kosovo further influence women’s access to formal employment: Women living in Pristina have the highest rate of participation (37%) while Prizren (11%) and Djakova (8%) have the lowest rate. Overall, women living in rural areas face more hurdles in accessing formal employment, especially if they live with extended family and need to oversee the whole household and take care of various family members.[3] Restricting women primarily to the private home and land, leads to systematic exclusion from the public sphere. This leads to unequal opportunities for women to participate in education, politics and paid employment which in return results in higher poverty rates.[4]

Women take on the double burden of care work.

Many women are forced to take on part-time jobs or lower-skilled jobs in order to balance their „homely duties” with their paid jobs. As such, even though they have a full-time paid job, many are expected to fulfil their „domestic role“ at home after work. Time is a limited resource that women have to carefully divide between paid and unpaid work and this often prevents them from pursuing other activities, such as educational and vocational skills or market-related activities.

Not remunerating care work undervalues the work in itself but also undervalues the overall economic contribution of women. [5]

We need to recognise the economic contribution of unpaid care work for our society and aim to lift the disproportionate burden from women. To achieve gender equality and establish social justice we need to dismantle stereotypical gender roles, address unequal divisions of labour, distribute care work between all societal actors, move away from the “male breadwinner” model, and bridge the enormous gap between paid and unpaid work.  [6]

***

References:

[1] Riinvest Institute. (July 2017). Division of labor within the household and economic independence as an empowerment tool.  http://www.riinvestinstitute.org/En/riinvest-story/247/division-of-labor-within-the-household-and-economic-independence-as-an-empowerment-tool/

[2] N. Farnsworth, A. Berisha, E. Browne, N. Guri, D. Kastrati, and G. Rrahmani. (2016). Who Cares? Demand, Supply, and Options for Expanding Childcare Availability in Kosovo. Kosovo Women’s Network.

[3] Gashi, A., Rizvanolli, A., (2015). The Cost of Patriarchy. Excluding women from the workforce is the main bottleneck to development. Democracy for Development Institute. Pp. 24.

[4] Ferrant, G., Pesando L.M., Nowacka, K. (2014). Unpaid Care Work: The issing link in the analysis of gender gaps in labour outcomes. https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/Unpaid_care_work.pdf

[5] Riinvest (May 2017). What if unpaid care work was paid?  http://www.riinvestinstitute.org/En/riinvest-story/241/what-if-unpaid-care-work-was-paid/

[6] Ferrant, G., Pesando L.M., Nowacka, K. (2014). Unpaid Care Work: The missing link in the analysis of gender gaps in labour outcomes. https://www.oecd.org/dev/development-gender/Unpaid_care_work.pdf--- Article text goes here ---