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Addressing women’s care work

Published : Tuesday, 16 March, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 990

Addressing women’s care work

Addressing women’s care work

It is opined that, women's contribution to all types of care work, if taken into account properly, would increase national income of a country. Relentlessly, women perform their care giving activities without any monetary charges. Current pandemic has driven the care economy deeper into crisis because whenever a family crisis comes, it is always women who sacrifice their comfort. This inconsistency in the burden of unpaid care work is more noticeable in Bangladesh. A study found that, woman spend five times more time on unpaid household farm duties than men.

It is also feared that this attitude will further worsen the conditions for women who continue to participate in the labour market and have a direct and negative impact on women's income and enjoyment of rights. Because, collecting accurate time use data is disreputably challenging and gender norms relating to definitions of work can even further difficult to understand.

This uneven and often unrecognized burden of caregiving not only pushes women back to the private bubble but also limits their empowerment opportunities. Women's excessive burden of household tasks is one of the major reasons behind this unequal participation in the labour force.

In recent times, women's involvement has increased both in the public and private sectors.  This is indicating that the gender role is in fact being changed. For sharpening the gender role we may also have to change our perspectives.  Again, to ensure equal participation of women in income-generating activities and to enable them to access the benefit of equal opportunities we could consider the followings:

1. The household work should have to be recognized as work instead of "woman's duty", and the workload should have to be redistributed among family members. Economists argued that our GDP could be increased if this work were counted in terms of GDP.

2. Gender Transformative Approach could be an effective solution in this case. The financial importance of recognizing unpaid care giving work as 'work',  and this recognition could lead towards a Gender Transformative Approach as this will remove the thinking that domestic tasks are exclusively women's work.

3. It is also necessary to redistribute the burden of care work in a more equitable way, so that distribution among men and women and different agencies including the family members are familiar.

4. Reduction of women's workload should have to be ensured. Men, especially spouses, can come forward to share domestic responsibilities which will reduce the burden for women. Moreover, technologies can also be used in applicable sectors to make smaller women's workload.

5. A changed state of mind is required for successful execution of this issue. According to the present situation, girl children are trained for household activities and boys are given freedom to gain skills associated with income generation. Therefore, instead of this existing practice, children could be taught that a boy can easily cook food and a girl can be trained up in a way that she can also be the earning member of the family.

6. Academic institutions can also play a role in creating a society based on gender equality by boosting up the gender equality issues. Therefore, in all areas of gender inequality, including gender-based violence, girls' education, natural resources management, etc would be an effective way to promote gender equality in Bangladesh which can bring benefits to the society.

7. It is also necessary to have a successful labour market. Because, if labour markets function well, as households gain income, they can hire in labour, and household female members can lower their workload. Again, if microfinance schemes and different NGOs give support to women in a variety of sectors it would carry a better result in this issue.

8. It is also a fact that, the exploitation of female employment is often accompanied by tensions, quarrels and negative behaviours' that vary from sluggishness and the threat of violence to physical violence. Therefore the law and order situation against violence should have to be strictly maintained.

9. Psychological improvement is also necessary for having gender equality in Bangladesh. We should have to keep in mind that, female employment do not mean that patriarchal ideologies have become watery, rather mobilizing female labour for household security is accompanied by different concerns, like this may be a trade-off  between economic needs and social status. Therefore, male support can also enhance the female empowerment.

10. Finally, the government should take steps to ensure women's development in Bangladesh through various policies, plans and strategies so that it could prioritize gender equality where men and women will have equal opportunities and rights, and women will be recognized as equal contributors in economic, social and political development.

In conclusion, we should uphold in mind that, preserving household team spirit and cooperation is more important for the long-term interests of women, rather than short-term goals of meeting personal needs that create anxieties, because of numerous repercussions. Globalization has provided our women the advantage of greater coverage and they are better outfitted to fight for needs - for pay parity, for policy level fortifications such as maternity leave, sexual harassment policies, and for a seat at the table in general. Women are now branching out into areas previously closed off to them.
Dr ATM Rezaul Hoque is a Professor, Department of Economics, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University











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