Valuing women's work

Much of women's work remains unrecognized and unvalued. This has an impact on the status of women in society, their opportunities in public life and the gender-blindness of development policy. In an attempt to understand the critical dimensions of women's work, this chapter sets out to measure the scale and nature of their economic contribution. A survey of time-use data from a range of countries highlights the contribution by women to household and community work. The chapter concludes that if the unpaid contributions by both women and men were recognized, there would be far-reaching consequences for social and economic policy and for social norms and institutions.

Related Subject(s): Economic and Social Development