Second shift: tales of unpaid labor
Written by Lote Līva Leimane
Edited by Megan Scott
*This is a fact checked piece*
Ever since the first human societies, gender has always played a role in one's status and societal pressure to be responsible for a specific thing and do a specific job. But when women entered the workforce, the family dynamics had to change because now both grown ups were out earning money, but did they change?
From the 1930s until the 1950s married women started to enter the workforce in significant numbers that were never seen before. The number went from 10 percent to 25 percent. The high increase was the result of offices requiring clerical workers and new information technologies, as well as the growth in the number of women attending high school at the start of the 20th century. However, it is important to note that this participation was negatively affected by their husband's income, because, the higher his income, the less she would ''need'' to work and be outside of the home since he can provide.
Now they went to work, came home, and had to do all the jobs that they did in the house before as a plus to their actual job. This is what is now called second shift or unpaid Labour.
Women’s unpaid work supports economies and often fills in gaps of the lack of social services that should be provided to help bridge this gap. Yet, this is barely ever recognised as work. The unpaid care and household work that women do is valued to be 10 and 39 percent of the Gross Domestic Product and can add more to the economy than the manufacturing, commerce, or transportation sectors which should be a sign of a change.
A new indicator developed by the ILO, (International Labor Organisation) the Jobs Gap, takes into account all the people without employment who are actively looking for jobs. It shows that the situation is worse than thought before for women in the world of work, the newly acquired data shows that women still have a lot harder time finding a job than men. This could be partially because the idea of unpaid labor that society expects from women is also what makes employers often think twice before hiring a woman because of the possibility that she might get pregnant and have to be on maternity leave or have to run away from her job once in a while. After all, her child is sick and so on, yet men are never questioned about such things and not even considered to be a problem if they have a family because society does not expect men to be the first to be called in case the child gets sick at school or problems like that. The design and functioning of institutions may be (intentionally or unintentionally) biased against women in ways that perpetuate existing inequalities.
The unequal distribution of unpaid care work at home between men and women represents an infringement of women’s rights and also break their economic empowerment that causes further damage on the economies and women's mental and physical health.
Although, the statistics say that 65% of unpaid labor is still done by women, each family has their own way of doing things in the house. Of course, some men do help around the house and clean, cook and take care of their kids like they should because those are just normal skills every grownup should have. It is interesting to see men being praised for taking care of their kids on the internet when it is their kid, not only the woman's. But when women post the same, they will most likely be torn apart for minor mistakes she has made or maybe not even receive any attention. Seeing this really proves the point of how rare it is to see men doing their part of the household work.
Another way unpaid labor hurts women is the fact that women will most likely be able to supply fewer hours of market work than men could, putting them at the risk of being positioned into lower-quality therefore lower paying jobs or assigned less important tasks and creates a pay gap.
In my opinion, each woman who chooses to go out and fight the patriarchy and all the obstacles that are put in her way just because of her gender deserves recognition. Women who have families and work deserve recognition. They work all the time. They stay all day in an environment and society that does not favour them to succeed and then go home and work their second shift by taking care of their families and the house. Women who choose to focus on their careers, not building a family constantly fight the idea that all women are born to nurture and create life while they are trying to climb the career ladder. They deserve recognition. Women who have to work to support their families financially and work multiple low-income jobs deserve recognition. Each of these women deserve a pat on the back for not backing down in the face of hardships, keeping on with their dreams and not allowing society to place them in a specific box. They are the reason the number of women in education and the workforce will keep growing. Women help build and lift up economies. Power to the women!