Women's Labour and Its Institutional Recognition
Mary Collier's poem, The Woman’s Labour (1739), highlights how women's contributions are often overlooked. A 2023 UN report shows women globally spend 2.8 more hours than men on unpaid domestic work.
Unseen and Uncounted Labour
- The emotional and mental labour women contribute to family and societal well-being remains unmeasured and unrewarded.
- This labour is rarely included in national budgets or policy frameworks, despite its critical role in maintaining social systems.
Structural and Ideological Forces
- Feminist scholars argue economic priorities marginalize care work, framing it as secondary to male-dominated "productive" labour.
- Public resources often divert from caregiving services, affecting domains predominantly occupied by women.
- Traditional gender roles and power dynamics perpetuate women's subordination in both productive and reproductive roles.
Global Legislative Efforts
- Efforts to institutionally recognize women's labour are scattered globally.
- Bolivia’s Constitution and laws in Trinidad and Tobago and Argentina offer some recognition of unpaid domestic work.
- There are no laws recognizing the mental and emotional labour contributed by women.
India's Legal Perspective
- India lacks a legal framework recognizing or compensating unpaid domestic work.
- The Madras High Court's 2023 ruling acknowledged a wife's household duties as contributing to family assets, granting her equal property rights.
Need for Structural Changes
- Recognizing women's labour requires reconfiguring gendered social relations.
- Men should co-shoulder care responsibilities to alleviate the feminized burden of unpaid work.
Conclusion
- Revaluating labour must include emotional labour, which is crucial for sustaining households and economic systems.
- Authors Rajesh Ranjan and Vrishti Shami emphasize legal and policy inclusion of women's labour.
