The principle of "one who tills the land, owns the land" is far from truth for most of women farmers.
However, be it the rural women or the urban women, regardless of the hours of the day women put into them, these strenuous and unpaid activities are often dismissed as a set of mundane daily chores which they are expected to perform by virtue of being a woman- daughter, wife, mother, or a female relative. Deep rooted patriarchal societies have always ignored women working in households and taken their vital, yet unpaid and invisible labour at home for granted.
Value of invisible work done by women is USD 10.8 Trillion
One estimate, as per an analysis done by Oxfam, puts the "true economic value of this invisible work" at USD 10.8 trillion,. In other words, if all women aged 15 and over around the world received even minimum wages for every hour of their unpaid labor, they would contribute about $10.8 trillion to the global economy annually.
A study done in India, corroborates the fact that a greater proportion of women's time is devoted to fulfilling domestic responsibilities, irrespective of their employment status. So, for women in employment, this often results in a 'second shift'. Add to this the hours of emotional labour that goes into holding families together and putting up with patriarchal constructs of what women should do or not do.
Recently, an Indian politician mentioned in one of his election speeches about how women remain unpaid labourers as they do myriad household chores, but never get paid for it.
Our male dominated society has always ignored women working in households and taken them for granted. We need more men (including our leaders) to deliberate seriously on this issue, for women's unpaid domestic labour to be acknowledged, redistributed and rewarded.
The root cause of gender inequality is patriarchy, and one manifestation of it is in the form of harmful gender norms and prejudices that are socially accepted and wrongly normalize and justify gender inequality.
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