blog 6: All Work and No Pay: Recognizing Women’s Unpaid Labor in the Global South

All Work and No Pay: Recognizing Women’s Unpaid Labor in the Global South

This article is written concerning the unpaid labor for women around the world. Traditionally women’s duties are undervalued as a result of the chronic sexism that is “still embedded in our economic equity”. Jobs such as cooking, cleaning, raising children, tending the young and elderly, water and firewood collecting are essential in the development of a community, as well as the younger generation of that community. However this work involves long hours without compensation, no break time, and in some cases abuse by family members. This is especially true for impoverished women, where the gender imbalance prevents women from obtaining new or different jobs, participating politically or gaining economic independence. Activist aren’t necessarily looking for monetary compensation for breast-feeding, but they “simply want society to reassess how it values labor”.

This article was interesting, because most of the discourse I’ve heard about “women’s labor” and compensation for such has been in the western world. It is also important that groups like ActionAid are calling attention to this issue, and how it is manifested in lower-income houses in the global south. It is definitely important to place an emphasis on these intersectionalities to be able to tackle the issue. Worldwide, duties often attributed to the mother go undervalued, as they are expected of the women. The necessary duties differ depending on geography, but gender imbalance is so deeply embedded in our economic transactions that is is easy to dismiss. However, I think it is important to note that this article lacked the perspectives of any of the women it was discussing, and that perspective could give an entirely view on the matter.

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/14656/all_work_and_no_pay_recognizing_womens_unpaid_labor_in_the_global_south/
Cassandra Poulos
1:28pm