Oxfam says women’s work not recognised
Increasing levels of global inequality
Women are performing chores in their homes that if it were in a major company would amount to $10-trillion (R139trillion) annual turnover. This is according to Oxfam’s 2019 annual inequality report that was launched in Johannesburg yesterday.
The report titled Public Good or Private Wealth, said unpaid labour executed by millions of women globally is on the rise. It painted a bleak picture of the increasing levels of inequality in the world, particularly between men and women.
Daily chores such as cooking, cleaning, looking after children and the elderly are not recognised in many countries as jobs that deserve wages despite the taxing effort behind the work.
This unrecognised work is responsible for the ill health of women and girls and steals valuable time that could be used to better their lives through education and other economic ventures. Oxfam SA executive director Sipho Mthathi said SA is a mirror image of the findings of the report with inequality rising according to racial and gender lines.
Mthathi said the inadequate public services mainly affect the girl child and women. “We all suffer when public services are neglected, but women and girls pay the highest price. Girls are pulled out of school first when the money is not available to pay fees, and women clock up hours of unpaid work looking after sick relatives when healthcare systems fail,” said Mthathi. “Ultimately, governments’ failure to provide adequate public goods is to fail women.” The report says countries with a higher inequality rate are also more likely to have a high wage gap between men and women.
“Most of the world’s richest people are men. Globally, women earn 23% less than men and men own 50% more of the total wealth. Most profoundly, our economic prosperity depends on the huge but unrecognised contribution of women through unpaid care work,” stated the report. The report says the main reason for the labour of women and girls not being recognised economically was due to negative societal attitudes. “Women’s unpaid contribution to the health sector alone is worth approximately 3% of GDP in low-income countries,” stated the report.