Feminist Understandings of (Unpaid) Care:Valuation and Implications for Home Caregivers
Jooyeoun Suh
Centre for Time Use Research, University of Oxford
Gender Mainstreaming and Unpaid Care International Forumat University of Hong Kong, January 14, 2017
What to Cover
I What is unpaid care work?I How to measure?I How to value?I What are the implications?
Goal
. . . to demonstrate the quantitativesignificance of unpaid care provision to thestate economy and help motivate a moreunified vision of priorities for thedevelopment of state care policies.
(Unpaid) Care Work Defined
The work that concerns the wellbeing of others like children,the sick and disabled, and the elderly.
I Outside the marketI Disproportionately womenI Intrinsic motivationI Costly specialization
Importance/Problems
I Quantitatively large.I Socially, politically and economically devalued.I Remains marginalized.
See: Beyond the Market by National Academy of Science, Sarkozy Commissionheaded by Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, TheCommission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and SocialProgress.
Example
Example
$ Valued
No$ Valued
Housewives
In the history of censuses and national income accounts, there aresome exceptions.
Census in Great Britain1851 - “Housewife”1881 - “Unoccupied”1891 - “Dependents”
Census in Massachusetts, United States1875 - “Domestic and personal office”
Source: Folbre, Nancy. 1999. “The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution inNineteenth-Century Economic Thought.” Sign 16(3): 463-484.
Housewives
“Having nothing to do but superintend households.”
The 1875 Massachusetts census - less than 2 percent of all marriedwomen as “wives, simply ornamental.”
By 1905, Massachusetts - all women not engaged in paidemployment as “dependents.”
Source: Folbre, Nancy. 1999. “The Unproductive Housewife: Her Evolution inNineteenth-Century Economic Thought.” Sign 16(3): 463-484.
Housewives were NOT Dependents
Elizabeth Cady Stanton(1815-1902) - Domestic workwas unique only because it was“unpaid, unsocialized, andunrelenting,” and deserveddecent egalitarian compensation.
The Association for theAdvancement of Women wrote aletter to Congress in 1878 -women as “non-workers.”
What’s included in current GDP?
I Lots of things
What’s included in current GDP?
I Lots of things - mostly material well-beingI Illicit activities - Drugs, prostitution, alcohol and tobacco
smuggling, and tax evasion
Example
FamilyA(Twoadults,twochildrenaged
under5)$50,000
FamilyB(Twoadults,twochildrenaged
under5)$25,000+$25,000
VS.
Example cont.
Family B must either:
a) purchase more services, ORb) reduce their leisure time in order to produce such servicesthemselves, ORc) reduce their consumption of such services.
Any combination of these lowers their material livingstandards.
By conventional measures, these households are equallywell-off.
Solution
Administer diary-based time-use surveys to a representativesample of the population on a regular basis and use these toimpute the value of unpaid care work.
Time Use Survey Data
Time Use Survey data
Republic of Armenia, Australia,Canada, Colombia, Finland,Hungary, Japan, Mexico, NewZealand, Norway, RussianFederation, Spain, Sweden,United Kingdom, United States
Growth of National Surveys of Time Use
1 4
11
18
36
87
1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s
Sources: U.N. Statistical Office.http://unstats.un.org/unsd/Demographic/sconcerns/tuse/default.aspx;Centre for Time Use Research, University of Oxford. http://www.timeuse.org
A working mother’s time diary
Record your main activity for each 10 min period
1. Primary Activity 2. Location of activity/travel mode 3. With whom Simultaneous Activity
Sleeping
Made Breakfast
Woke up the husband and childrenGot the children ready for school
Had breakfast
Did the dishes
Hair care
Got Young-eun dressedTook Young-eun to the day care center
Went to the subway station by bus
Arrived at the office
On the subway
Talked with the family
Make up
Listened to English
An activity done at the same time as a primary
activity
1.Alone2.Spouse3.Children under 104.Children 10 and over5.Parents
0. Your home 6. Riding a bike1.Workplace-school 7. Personal transport 2.Another person’s place3.Restaurants or pubs 8. Public Transport4.Other places 9. Other transport5.Walking
Example
6 AM
7 AM
8 AM
Arrived at the office
Morning Assembly in the auditorium
returned to the office
work
work
Drank coffee
Work-related meeting
Went to lunch
Lunch
In the case of activities done without engagements with others (e.g. doing paperwork, attending an assembly, hearing a lecture, etc) leave the ‘with whom’ slot empty but as for activities such as a work-related meeting, record all relevant people.
9 AM
10 AM
11 AM
12 AM
A working mother’s time diary
Record your main activity for each 10 min period
1. Primary Activity 2. Location of activity/travel mode 3. With whom Simultaneous Activity
Sleeping
Made Breakfast
Woke up the husband and childrenGot the children ready for school
Had breakfast
Did the dishes
Hair care
Got Young-eun dressedTook Young-eun to the day care center
Went to the subway station by bus
Arrived at the office
On the subway
Talked with the family
Make up
Listened to English
An activity done at the same time as a primary
activity
1.Alone2.Spouse3.Children under 104.Children 10 and over5.Parents
0. Your home 6. Riding a bike1.Workplace-school 7. Personal transport 2.Another person’s place3.Restaurants or pubs 8. Public Transport4.Other places 9. Other transport5.Walking
Example
6 AM
7 AM
8 AM
Arrived at the office
Morning Assembly in the auditorium
returned to the office
work
work
Drank coffee
Work-related meeting
Went to lunch
Lunch
In the case of activities done without engagements with others (e.g. doing paperwork, attending an assembly, hearing a lecture, etc) leave the ‘with whom’ slot empty but as for activities such as a work-related meeting, record all relevant people.
9 AM
10 AM
11 AM
12 AM
Get children ready for schools
Eat breakfast
Wash dishes
Children under 10
Children under 10 +
Spouse
Alone
and
Get children ready for school
Eat breakfast
Wash dishes
Children under 9 and
spouse
Children under 9
Alone
A working mother’s time diary
Record your main activity for each 10 min period
1. Primary Activity 2. Location of activity/travel mode 3. With whom Simultaneous Activity
Sleeping
Made Breakfast
Woke up the husband and childrenGot the children ready for school
Had breakfast
Did the dishes
Hair care
Got Young-eun dressedTook Young-eun to the day care center
Went to the subway station by bus
Arrived at the office
On the subway
Talked with the family
Make up
Listened to English
An activity done at the same time as a primary
activity
1.Alone2.Spouse3.Children under 104.Children 10 and over5.Parents
0. Your home 6. Riding a bike1.Workplace-school 7. Personal transport 2.Another person’s place3.Restaurants or pubs 8. Public Transport4.Other places 9. Other transport5.Walking
Example
6 AM
7 AM
8 AM
Arrived at the office
Morning Assembly in the auditorium
returned to the office
work
work
Drank coffee
Work-related meeting
Went to lunch
Lunch
In the case of activities done without engagements with others (e.g. doing paperwork, attending an assembly, hearing a lecture, etc) leave the ‘with whom’ slot empty but as for activities such as a work-related meeting, record all relevant people.
9 AM
10 AM
11 AM
12 AM
Get children ready for schools
Eat breakfast
Wash dishes
Children under 10
Children under 10 +
Spouse
Alone
and
Get children ready for school
Eat breakfast
Wash dishes
Children under 9 and
spouse
Children under 9
Alone
Location Secondary Activity
UK 2015 Time Use Survey Data - Weekdays
Korea 2014 Time Use Survey Data - Men
0
.2
.4
.6
.8
1
Per
cent
1am 4am 7am 10am 1pm 4pm 7pm 10pm
Other Leisure Eating Personal care
Sleep Paid work Care work Unpaid work
Korea 2014 Time Use Survey Data - Women
0
.2
.4
.6
.8
1
Per
cent
1am 4am 7am 10am 1pm 4pm 7pm 10pm
Other Leisure Eating Personal care
Sleep Paid work Care work Unpaid work
0.4 0.5 0.5 0.5
1.8 1.6 1.7 1.4
0.6 0.8 0.60.6
0.40.7 0.8
0.8
1975 1985 2000 2015
HOURSOFUNPAIDWORK INTHEUK(1975-2015, FOR THOSEWHO ARE18AND OVER ,HOURS PER
DAY)
Carework CoreHousework Householdmanagement TravelandShopping
1028
1536
1740
204123
187
42
139
54
139
47
108
54
24
56
46
50
36
47
47
16
37
30
46
38
54
36
48
MEN WOMEN MEN WOMEN MEN WOMEN MEN WOMEN
1975 1985 2000 2015
UNPAIDWORKHOURS BYGENDER(1975-2015, ADULTS18 ANDOVER)
Carework CoreHousework HouseholdManagement Travel andShopping
262
365
152
36
136
59
32
51
WOMEN MEN
KOREANTIMEUSE SURVEYDATA2014 (MINUTES, 18-64)
PaidWorkHours(min) Housework(min) Care (min) PureLeisure(min)
Ways to Value Unpaid Work
Direct valuation of labor time:
- Opportunity cost-what would have been earned in alternativeactivity.
- Replacement cost (quality-adjusted)-what it would cost toprovide work of comparable value.
Indirect valuation of labor time:
- Assign a value to the output—e.g. “a restaurant meal” or “anhour of childcare”, subtract the cost of capital and raw materials,what is left over is the labor cost.
Valuing Unpaid Care Work
Margaret Reid’s classic book, Economics of Household Productionpublished in 1934, carefully explained the logic of valuinghousehold production.
Things to Consider When Valuing Exercise
Quality-adjusted replacement rate: What would it cost to hiresomeone with equivalent skill to do the job?
But, person-specific skills and relationships are not easilysubstitutable.
Hence, the best one can hope for is a “lower-bound” estimate.
UK 2015 Value of Unpaid Labour
Child care (physical,developmental, other, travel)Adult careCooking and cleaningDoing laundryHome repairs and maintenanceShoppingGardeningPet careTravel
≈ £449Billion
26124
306449
109
382
1080
1869
1975 1985 2000 2015
InBillionPounds
GDPandValueofUnpaidWork (1975-2015)
ValueofUnpaidWork GDP
How Much is a Mother Worth?
“Insure.com estimates that theaverage mom spends 40 hours aweek, 52 weeks a year, takingcare of her kids. The meanhourly wage for such ajob—childcare worker—is $11.10,which adds up to $23,088annually....When all the numbersare added up, the total comes to$65,283.81.”
Salary.com Offers a Much Higher Estimate
Some Objections
I No changes in wagesand salaries
I Data not availableI Too crudeI Market valuation of
“the sacred”
What is required to Go Beyond ?
I Continuous effort to collect time-use dataI Combine with income, consumption, household capitalI Harmonisation for national comparabilityI Expand definition of unpaid work (care work)
