The Invisibility of Women’s Unpaid Work in Gender Policies
Over the last 30 years, big improvements have been done in gender equality. Women increased significantly their participation in the labor market, they outpaced men in college education and the number of female occupations has decreased. However, the gender pay gap persists. Why? A series of factors can explain the wage difference between men and women and there is one in particular that is becoming increasingly important: the unequal distribution of unpaid work. Let’s talk a little bit about it.
Policy makers should address the gender pay gap through the design of family-friendly policies that promote an equal distribution of unpaid care work between men and women.
On average, women spend disproportionally more time on unpaid care work and domestic chores than men, and they are more likely to work part-time, reduce working hours, or turn down promotions due to family responsibilities. This behavior creates differences in the amount of work experience that, together with statistical discrimination, results in a gender pay gap and limited career opportunities for women. For a long time, this factor remained invisible for policy makers. Some argued that it’s difficult to measure, some others that it’s less relevant than other factors. Hopefully, there’s a consensus now, it’s time to adjust the policy focus and take into consideration the women’s unpaid work in gender policies.
When “time is not money” for everyone
Individuals have a fixed amount of time that can be split between work and leisure, paid, and unpaid work. Men and women allocate this time differently and women bear the majority of the household responsibilities. Certainly, for many women, participating or not in the labor market is a free and informed choice. Nevertheless, for many others, it is influenced by social norms and gender stereotypes. In this article, I will focus on the group of women, especially mothers, whose employment decisions are not as voluntary.
Women are more likely than men to reduce the number of weekly working hours or even quit their job for care work and family responsibilities. According to the U.S Census Bureau, 76.3 % of mothers are employed full time versus 95.6 % of fathers and, 23.7 % of mothers are employed part-time versus 4.4% of fathers.
Women spend two more hours on unpaid work per day, a phenomenon that economists denoted as the “second shift”.
On average, women spend fewer hours on paid work per week than men and they spend around the same number of hours on paid and unpaid work. When compared to men, they spend two more hours on unpaid work per day. As a consequence, their workday expands by 2.3 hours, a phenomenon that economists denoted as the “second shift”. In the United States, data suggest that women devote 60 % more time than men to care work and domestic chores. Also, on average, women have less time for leisure than men.
Briefly, women devote fewer hours to paid work than men and more hours to unpaid work. As a result, they end up with less work experience than their same-age male counterparts. Can we say, though, that a lower salary can be justified by the fact that they work less and have less work experience than men?
To answer that question, we should zoom in the picture. Women and men start their career life at near parity. As women get involved in parenthood and family responsibilities, career interruptions and the need for reducing working hours create a working experience gap that can explain part of the gender pay gap. But… what if a mother doesn’t need to take time off for child care? What if a father wants to reduce his weekly working hours to participate more in household responsibilities? What if a woman doesn’t want to become a mother?
Discriminating, just in case
Gender stereotypes and the reality that women suffer work interruptions more frequently than men create statistical discrimination against women in the labor market. This is materialized in the gender pay gap, less training, and fewer opportunities for promotions.
When women compete with men for job positions they face statistical discrimination that comes from informational asymmetry. For instance, the hiring manager will probably have a difficult time identifying if female applicants will need to stop working for some period to raise children or care ill family members. It is likely that the employer infers that male counterparts will not take large family care responsibilities. In consequence, the hiring manager will make decisions based on the statistical evidence that women are more likely than men to take time off due to family needs. Even if a particular woman enjoys an equitable distribution of unpaid work, or if a particular man participates more or equal than his partner in household labor, they will be discriminated based on the generalization of their gender (positively discriminated in the male case).
Evidence shows that parenthood has a significant negative impact on women’s wages — but not on men’s — . Unmarried women without children earn 96 percent of what their male counterparts earn, while married women with a child at home earn only 76 percent of their male counterparts’ earnings. How can we explain that? Half to two-thirds of the difference in wages between men and women remains unexplained and it is attributed to gender discrimination.
Gender statistical discrimination in the labor force happens at every level, although it is more present in top executive positions. Women remain underrepresented in American business and politics. They are less likely to be hired into manager-level jobs, and they are far less likely to be promoted into them — for every 100 men promoted to manager there are 72 women — . Men end up holding 62% of managers while women hold only 38%. With respect to politics, in 2019 women held 24% of the seats in the U.S. Congress, they represented 29% of state legislators and 18% of governors.
Statistical discrimination will persist as long as it makes financial sense for the employers and the market in general.
To eradicate gender discrimination, it is important to understand the root of it. Gender discrimination based on prejudices can only be eliminated by changing misperceptions against women through education, culture, and leading with female examples. However, statistical discrimination will persist as long as it makes financial sense for the employers and the market in general. The asymmetry of information that causes statistical discrimination can be removed if men and women enjoy more equitably family responsibilities, softening the second shift women face. Also, women would be less associated with reproductive and domestic roles and men would have new opportunities to assume domestic chores and care work. Therefore, an equal distribution of unpaid care work between men and women is key to eradicate gender statistical discrimination.
Looking for family-friendly policies
Increasing women's participation in the labor market matters not only from an ethical perspective but also from an economic point of view. Including more women and improving parity between genders imply a significant growth in family income and GDP. Public policies aiming to increase women's participation and eradicate the gender pay gap should consider the working experience gap and the barriers that constraint women’s full participation.
Access to affordable child care, gender-neutral paid family leave and flexible but predictable schedules are key factors to promote an equal distribution of unpaid work.
To incentivize a better allocation of paid and unpaid work between men and women, public policies must take into account the way work and family are intertwined. For instance, the lack of adequate family-friendly policies impacts harder on mothers due to gender roles and stereotypes. Access to affordable child care is a fundamental factor to prevent working mothers to quit their jobs or reduce the number of weekly working hours. It also frees up women’s time to be devoted to paid work or leisure that can be spent in training or gaining new skills.
Another relevant factor is gender-neutral paid family leave. Mothers with access to paid maternity leave are more likely to return to their previous employer and return to the labor market more quickly as they do not have to spend time searching for a new job. Also, when fathers enjoy paid parental leave, women do not need to take extra time off to care for newborns and they can go back to work sooner. It is important to notice that extended maternity leave may have a negative effect on female labor reincorporation, instead, it may be preferable to encourage mandatory paid paternity leave. In addition, it can increase the male contribution of care work and incentivizes an equal distribution of household responsibilities.
Finally — although the list is not exhaustive — women are more likely than men to have nonstandard work schedules. This makes hard for them to meet family and job responsibilities. Flexible but predictable schedules are also needed to help redistribute unpaid work between men and women.
Interestingly enough, the OECD reports that in countries with family-friendly policies that promote a better balance between work and family for both parents, the work experience gap is lower as well as gender inequality in the workplace. Including inequality in unpaid care work as a variable in the gender pay gap helps to understand why, even when women outpaced men in education, gender gaps persist.
Policy makers should consider the differences in time allocation between men and women and the barriers that constraint women’s employment decisions. They should address the gender pay gap through the design of family-friendly policies that promote an equal distribution of unpaid care work between men and women.
References
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