Development implications of unpaid work

The unpaid work is indispensable to maintaining and advancing capabilities and human development. It is essential to the functioning of societies and economies and makes possible much of the observed kinds of paid work. However, it is unevenly shared between men and women — it is predominantly women who undertake much of this unpaid work.

There are variations in how unpaid care work is shared between men and women across countries and over time. For example, in Argentina in 2013 an estimated 50 percent of men did unpaid domestic work, averaging 2.4 hours a day. For women the figures were 87 percent and 3.9 hours. The same year the proportions were 30 percent for men and 54 percent for women in Bogotá, with women taking greater responsibility for food preparation, cleaning and maintenance.

How the burden is shared has also been evolving — in the United States women spent more than 240 minutes a day on housework and men less than 40 minutes in 1965; by 2012 women’s involvement had fallen to around 140 minutes a day, and men’s had risen to over 80 minutes. Despite the shift, the burden is still unequal. According to time use surveys in developing countries, women are typically responsible for more than 75 percent of the time their household dedicates to unpaid care.

In low-income households that adds up to many more hours than in middle- or high-income households, which generally have better access to basic services and can afford to hire help or buy labour-saving technology. In Africa alone women average 200 million hours a day collecting water. Even when the burden of this work is ameliorated, it remains labour intensive and poses impediments to pursuing other activities such as education, paid work, participation or leisure.

Read more about the development implications of unpaid work.

Source: International Federation for Family Development (IFFD)