The Economics of Care Work

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The field of economics is riddled with shoddy excuses used as justifications for the erasure of the value of contributions made by womxn*. Women and non-binary voices have been historically suppressed, systemically so, by society in all fields of research and knowledge, which has contributed to erasure and lack of recognition of the work of womxn, especially in the field of economics.

Let’s dive into the simple concept of National Income Accounting. These calculations consist of many factors, including explicit values of output, such as the value of consumer goods, like our daily bread and butter. It also consists of implicit value considerations of those that do not have a market value, such as public defence, maintenance of public infrastructure, etc. It is interesting to note that economists also take into consideration an adjustment for the value of underreported income while calculating the National Income.

What is preposterous is that the value of unpaid care work, something that is still majorly done by womxn, is not taken into consideration. A justification (read: excuse) that we have been taught for this anomaly, is that because these are nonmarket goods, it is difficult to obtain reliable measures and values. And yet, we all know that care work and its allied services are also available in the market for pay, for instance, the services provided by professional house cleaners, daycare centres, cooks, etc. Valuing the household contribution of each individual to its market value, and using that to find a rough estimate of the value of care work’s contribution is not much of an ordeal, especially when we have the ability and patience to estimate the value of income of those that commit tax fraud.

This added valuation has numerous potential benefits, ranging from having a more accurate representation of a Nation’s GDP to enhancing the status of womxn within households, and in society at large. So, why don’t we calculate this? Perhaps the answer is ignorance and a hesitance to shift to newer models of GDP calculation. Or perhaps, the answer it is inherent in academia and economics, as with every other sphere of a hetero-patriarchal capitalistic society, to not consider the value of womxn and caregivers as labour, an undeniable resultant of systemic oppression.

But why should valuing care work be of any importance to us? As students of economics, we know that GDP valuation is, and will remain deeply flawed, as we still cannot account for the true costs of production, such as the economic costs of pollution or human resource exploitation. So, why bother changing a system of inaccurate representation? Well, besides our obvious ability to assign a monetary value to care work, it is also important to take it into consideration because care work is absolutely essential to human survival, and having it underrepresented will have, and already has gross consequences.

Care work caters to fundamental human needs. It is a system that consists of activities and relationships involved in meeting the physical, emotional, and psychological aspects of care, such as homemaking, nursing, teaching, etc. Without it, our society and economy will not be able to function. If children aren’t cared for from the instance of their birth, they will not grow into healthy, happy, and productive members of our society. Those who fall sick won’t easily be able to recover and re-join the labour force. Despite it being so essential, market care workers are still undervalued and underpaid, which has serious consequences on how we develop as a society. For instance, schools are poorly funded, and teachers are often poorly paid. When teachers are barely making ends meet, they have less time to devote towards the preparation of a class, as they take on one or two additional part-time jobs. Sometimes, colleges hire ad-hoc or part-time teachers, who barely receive any benefits such as healthcare, tenure, or financial stability. Clearly, mistreating our teachers severely impacts their physical and mental health, which directly impacts the quality of education imparted to students, and by extension, which in turn poorly impacts their knowledge base and skill development, terribly impacting our society and, and our economy.

Thankfully, a new branch of thinking – Feminist Economics, is on the rise. Although not perfect, it does push for a better valuation of the nonmarket contributions made by womxn, addresses the pressing issues of income and wage disparities, and more. It is important that we maintain hope for the future, while also pointing out and learning from the mistakes made in the past. Although newer models may not address each and every need we have, be it social, economic or environmental, the quest is not that of perfection, but to be better than what we were before.

*Please note: The term womxn has been used to in accordance to its original definition, i.e, that of being a creation of the intersectional feminist movement, intended to bring to the foreground transgender, nonbinary, and women of color, and simultaneously also include non-binary voices.

References:

1. “ILO: Women Do 4 Times More Unpaid Care Work than Men in Asia and the Pacific.” 2018. Press release. June 27, 2018. http://www.ilo.org/asia/media-centre/news/WCMS_633284/lang--en/index.htm.

2. PhD, Luke Messac, MD. n.d. “Women’s Unpaid Work Must Be Included in GDP Calculations: Lessons from History.” The Conversation. Accessed August 4, 2020. http://theconversation.com/womens-unpaid-work-must-be-included-in-gdp-calculations-lessons-from-history-98110.

3. Valdivia, Ana Garcia. n.d. “Time To Change Perceptions: Why Care Work Can Boost Countries’ Economies.” Forbes. Accessed August 4, 2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/anagarciavaldivia/2019/05/27/time-to-change-perceptions-why-care-work-can-boost-countries-economies/.

4. “What Is Feminist Economics?” 2018. Womens Budget Group (blog). January 10, 2018. https://wbg.org.uk/blog/what-is-feminist-economics/.

Cover image credits: Medium.com