Women’s Unpaid Labor is Worth $11T

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/04/opinion/women-unpaid-labor.html

by vo2maxer • 6 years ago

22 27 6 years ago

himinlomax• 6 years ago

My mother stayed at home while my father worked in an office. She did a lot of "unpaid work." He also fixed the car, re-tiled the roof, fixed the plumbing, changed the car's oil, and so on ... never got paid for it either.

So why is one type of unpaid work suddenly worth trillions, but the other isn't?

untog5• 6 years ago

No one is saying that men’s unpaid work is worth nothing. The article is merely highlighting how much women’s work is worth.

And let’s be clear: if your mom was at home all day Monday to Friday while your dad was at the office and then they both did unpaid work on the weekend then your mom did a lot more unpaid work than your dad did. Nothing bad or damning about that, but it’s the reality of a lot of women’s lives (especially in previous generations). And what do you know, the article does cover that!

We also compared the distribution of unpaid work across genders. India has the largest gap: Women there spend almost six hours a day managing the home; Indian men spend a paltry 52 minutes. The smallest divides are found in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where social safety net programs provide care for children and older people.

Proziam2• 6 years ago

What I think the person you're responding to was really trying to say is closer to "why do people write articles about how much women's unpaid labor is worth, but not about men's?"

Just a question though, are we comparing hours or economic value when talking about 'more' unpaid work? In hours terms my (stay at home) mom definitely did more, but in terms of the dollar value of the labor, I think it's probably a toss-up (in the case of my childhood at least).

badpun2• 6 years ago

Also, your father presumably supported your mother and you with his wages. There are millions (billions?) of cases like that, and yet nobody is talking about "unprecedented wealth transfer".

heartbeats• 6 years ago

It seems like the opposite of "unpaid". Husband does X hours of labour each year and gets 0.5 * total salary. Wife does Y hours of labour each year and also gets 0.5 * total salary.

It's not unpaid labour if you're getting paid for it, right?

mmoez• 6 years ago

So why is one type of unpaid work suddenly worth trillions, but the other isn't?

How dare you express such a criticism?!!!

ldeangelis• 6 years ago

Here the research[0] the article is mentionning, and a direct link[1] to the paper:

[0] https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/t...

[1] https://ousweb-prodv2-shared-media.s3.amazonaws.com/media/do...

badpun2• 6 years ago

I don' see what is the point of this article. Because of how priorities and values work, labor performed for others must be paid (as otherwise why do it?), while labor performed for yourself and your family does not need payment, as the motivation is intrinsic. Calling it unpaid labor is manipulative and disingenuous - who should be paying me if I fix my own shoes for example? The whole problem statement makes no sense.

untog5• 6 years ago

who should be paying me if I fix my own shoes for example?

At no point does the article suggest that women should be paid $10,900B for their work. It is simply pointing out that the work they do has monetary value and highlights how different the gender balance is in different countries.

You fixing your own shoes is unpaid work, sure. Why does that render the article invalid?

downerending2• 6 years ago

It does seem disingenuous, as no one has ever claimed that "unpaid" work doesn't have value. It does have value, and that's why it's always compensated in one way or another.

In fact, arguably it's highly beneficial to families to have one partner that isn't paid on the books for this work, as that means they don't have to pay taxes on that pay.

My parents both worked, but a lot of my friends had stay-at-home mothers, and they seemed to be doing a lot better financially, perhaps partly due to this effect.

thrwaway692• 6 years ago

I know I will get downvoted for saying this but every thread on women issues always get hijacked by men talking about themselves and how the world is unfair to them. That doesn't happen on articles on men. Those don't get hijacked by women similarly.

My female friends always point this out and this is true. Every time someone talks about issues surrounding women, instead of letting them, men comes in swamp telling them how miserable their lives are. They don't go to a therapist to resolve issues they should but instead take any chance to vent on women. They don't try to make a community, movement or some statement to help other men left out but cry in misery. They told me how it awful was and the experience really sucked for them. It was toxic. They needed a baby sitter instead of a partner. They also wasted a lot of time on useless things and less on improving their lives i.e, hygiene, eating habits, schedule etc. They told me how they were relying them to pick up those daily stuff for them. That I'd consider unpaid labor and god knows how much labor they are performing for free.

Edit: I am only describing what I heard from them in the second part of the post.

LunaSea4• 6 years ago

Read my other comment down below, it's not free labor since they are paid through the use and consumption of goods bought by their partners.

reportgunner2• 6 years ago

every thread on women issues always get hijacked by men talking about themselves

But why do you want men to fix it ? Should we ask more women to come comment on men's articles ?

From my point of view it seems like the lack of women coming to comment on men's problems articles - I don't believe we should ban men from commenting on women articles.

untog5• 6 years ago

If someone posts an article comparing the performance of two Android phones the comments aren’t filled with “what about iPhones?!”. And yet every time gender is mentioned...

Guys, it’s OK for an article to discuss the different levels of unpaid labour performed by women in different countries. You don’t have to perceive it as an attack on men if you don’t want to.

reportgunner2• 6 years ago

You don’t have to perceive it as an attack on men if you don’t want to.

I think people react like that because we have been conditioned into thinking that men are to blame for the status quo.

thrwaway692• 6 years ago

One way we can solve this and make it right is by taxing overtime more. Men tend to do overtime frequently due to having more time in the absence of unpaid labor work women have to. That overtime tax can be used to compensate everyone equally. While it may not remove all disparity but it will level up the ground without direct discrimination.

LunaSea4• 6 years ago

That's already assuming that overtime is paid which is not the case in the vast majority of cases.

Women’s Unpaid Labor is Worth $11T

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