Did you know that women’s unpaid labor is worth $10,900,000,000,000?
It may sound exaggerated, but it is very true. Specifically, according to Oxfam, if women received a minimum wage for the unpaid work they do at home as housewives and for taking care of their families, they would have earned $10.9 trillion! In fact, the unpaid work of daily life is a vital part of the economic system. This type of work is mainly performed by women and is often not recognized as such.
However, while this phenomenon is timeless, the pandemic intensified it at a dramatic rate. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the health crisis has consolidated the inequalities between the sexes in the labor market and further exacerbated inequalities between them. School closures, for example, combined with housework, forced women who managed to remain in work to reduce their working hours or extend their total working hours (paid and unpaid) to unsustainable levels.
The fact that the phenomenon of gender inequality at work did not appear in the pandemic, it simply emerged as a major social issue. Whether a woman works in the office, works from home or for the home, she has always worked, and more than men in the majority of cases, but without the necessary recognition. Therefore, the emergence of #EqualPay, i.e. awareness around equal pay for men and women at work is long overdue. Working from home is a situation that women have been living in long before the pandemic.
The role of Rise Club
At this point, Rise Club, as a supporter to women who carry out one of the most valuable but also “unpaid” jobs at the same time, that of caring for children and the family, with the holistic Career Restart Programme wishes to contribute to their smooth transition to the labor market. Rise Club recognizing mothers’ daily struggle to balance family and work, helps them get back on their feet and develop skills to realize their goal: re-enter the labour market and become part of the economically active population.
Dimitra Tzia
Internationalist, Political Analyst – Rise Club columnist
