Policies to Create Financial Incentives for Caring Work

"The invisible hand of the market depends on the invisible heart of care.
Markets cannot function effectively outside the framework of families and communities built on values of love, obligation, and reciprocity."
Nancy Folbre, The Invisible Heart

Why do we need to Value Traditionally Feminine Caring work?

There are two reasons why undervalued traditionally feminine work should be valued:

We Need to Heal Ourselves
The work week has become progressively longer in the United States. The percentage of people who work over 48 hours per week has been rising steadily since 1948[1]. Increasing work hours encroach on family time and the leisure hours people could spend on volunteer work and community service. Family time and leisure is important for our emotional fulfillment. We must find more time for our children, families, and communities!

We Need to Heal Our Economy
Traditionally feminine work is the backbone of our economy. Traditionally feminine work in the home is maintains the health and comfort of the labor force, educates and nourishes social capital in the form of children, and produces all non-market work essential for maintaining our current standard of living. Yet unpaid feminine caring work is devalued by our society. This is the reason why the output and quality of caring work has decreased in the United States for the past few decades. We need to value the devalued feminine work for the health and growth of our economy! [Read more in the Layer Cake section]

Child-rearing has been undervalued in our society.
Picture from Stock.xchng, with permission of the photographer.

How do we Value Traditionally Feminine Caring Work?

In a society where value is measured in monetary terms, some feminists have suggested that women's work should be incorporated in the GDP. If a monetary value is attached to the traditionally unpaid feminine work in the home, then our society could realize the importance of such labor. Canada calculated that unpaid work is worth between 30.6% and 41.4% of the national GDP of the country [2]. Feminists expect if unpaid work and volunteer work were counted, the GDP of America would grow by almost 33%.

Some feminists argue putting a monetary value on feminine caring work would devalue it and claim one cannot put a price on love and affection. For example, how can we put a price on the work of a mother who raises a child?

GDP does not capture all the work that goes into our economy. A better measure might be the Genuine Progress Indicator [Read More on Geunine Progress Indicator].

Ultimately, we need a change in values that encourages us to recognize traditionally feminine work as important labor [Read More on Discernment Process]. In the meanwhile, we must implement policies that would properly value traditionally feminine caring work and encourage housework, childrearing, and volunteer work.

What kind of Policies do we need to Re-Value Traditionally Feminine Caring Work in Our Homes?

The way our economy is currently designed, people have to choose between work in the paid labor force and caring work in the home. Since the caring work is devalued and disrespected, most women and men feel that they must choose work in the paid labor force. Additionally, competitive consumerism and stagnant real wages means most men and women must participate in the paid labor force if they want to maintain their standard of living [3]. Very few people in America have the luxury of "opting out" of the paid labor market [Read more on Opting Out]

Policies to encourage caring labor in the homes must focus on making it easier to engage in traditionally feminine caring work, where most participants have to hold some kind of paid job in the labor market. Here are some policies that would allow people to engage in traditionally feminine works in the homes without having to completely opt out of the paid labor force:

Shorter Work Weeks
Americans work the longest out of all the nations in the developed world. Long work hours mean less time for our children and families.
[Read more at iww.org]

Paid Parental Leaves
The United States and Australia are the only industrialized countries that do not have a national policy on providing paid maternity or paternity leave. As a result, parents are forced to leave their children at a very early age to get back to the paid labor market. This deprives children of the necessary parental contact that can help them develop into well adjusted future citizens. [Read more at childpolicyintl.com]

Flexible Work Hours
The market economy is structured in such a way that it normally prevents a person from being able to do both home and market work. Most people must choose between fulltime work in the paid labor market or home. Part-time work does not usually include healthcare and retirement benefits workers need to maintain a comfortable standard of living. More flexible work schedules will allow employees to perform their job efficiently and to devote time to their families. Unfortunately, most employers currently do not give this option to employees [4].

Poverty stricken single parents often work long hours in underpaying jobs that prevent them from caring for their children. The poor of American society need the following additional support:

An Effective Welfare Program
The State should provide welfare to poverty-stricken parents so they can focus on raising children without having to work in the paid labor market. Rearing children is an important activity and may be impossible to do well without such support; however, welfare is often a dirty word in America. Many conservatives argue that providing welfare makes people lazy and that it is a "temptation for people to slack off." What many of the dissidents of welfare forget is that privileged people possess social insurance in the form of their economic connections to the rich. People on welfare are not as fortunate. Most people on welfare are single mothers who do not have much economic support from their families. The State should provide an economic safety net for poor parents so they may raise children better. Welfare attempts to level the playing ground for those that are not born rich. Welfare should be made stronger in order to help poor people and provide them with socioeconomic support .

Labor Unions
Many poor women work long hours in underpaying jobs that are not supported by labor unions. Women unionize to make sure that they get paid at a reasonable rate and are treated fairly at work. Being paid better will allow women to spend less time working and more time to raising children, if they so choose. [Read more at ]

What kind of Policies do we need to Re-Value traditionally underpaid Volunteer Work and traditionally feminine jobs in the paid labor market?

"When everything is for sale, the person who volunteers time, who helps a stranger, who agrees to work for a modest wage out of commitment to the public good, who desists from littering even when no one is looking, who forgoes an opportunity to free-ride, begins to feel like a sucker." Robert Kuttner

Volunteer work, like feminine caring work in the home, is devalued in our society. Volunteer workers and are generally paid very little; this reflects the general attitude of our society toward people that want to provide caring labor instead of working in the paid labor market.

Traditionally feminine jobs in the labor market such as teaching and nursing are undervalued and paid less than comparable, traditionally masculine jobs.

The following policies can help us value volunteer work:

Increase the Pay of Volunteer Workers
Increasing the pay of volunteer workers, of teacher and social service officials will make sure that caring labor is valued. This will also encourage bright young people to enter these fields without feeling that the stigma of working in a low-paying job when the current norm is to get the highest paying job possible.

Comparable Worth

Is it possible to Value the Devalued Feminine Work with these Policies?

Japan, Canada, and numerous countries in Europe have implemented policies that allow people to enjoy family and community time. In most of these countries, parents are given paid parental leave for a year as well as sick leave if their children are ill. Moreover, some Northern European States provides subsidized day care for children whose parents work in the paid labor market.

Europe also enjoys a strong welfare program that rewards parents for childrearing.

Here are some policies from different parts of the world:

End Notes:

[1] Industrial Workers of the World: A Union For All Workers, Join the Fight for a Shorter Work Week! [on-line] (accessed on May 16, 2007) Available at: http://www.iww.org/projects/4-Hours; Internet.

[2] Valuing Unpaid Work. [on-line] (accessed on May 17, 2007) Available at: http://www.unpac.ca/economy/valuingunpaidwork.html; Internet.

[3] Center For Economic and Policy Research. Testimony of Heather Boushey: Perspectives on Work/Family Balance and the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Laws [on-line] (Washington,DC. Posted 17 April 2007. Accessed 16 May 2007) Available from Center For Economic And Policy Research Official Website: http://www.cepr.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1134; Internet.

[3] Associated Press. U.S. stands apart from other nations on maternity leave [on-line] (Posted 26 July 2005, Accessed 16 May 2007) Available from USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-07-26-maternity-leave_x.htm; Internet.

[4] Golden, Lennie. Flexible work schedules: what are we trading off to get them? [on-line] (Accessed 16 May 2007) Available from Monthly Labor Review Online: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2001/03/art3exc.htm; Internet.

Resources

Albelda. Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, and Beyond.
Abromovitz. Under Attack: Fighting Back. Women and Welfare in the United States
Ferber and Nelson. Beyond Economic Man: Feminist Theory and Economics.
Folbre, Nancy. Family Time: The Social Organization of Care. New York: Routledge, 2004
Folbre, Nancy. The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values. New York: The New Press, 2001.
Nancy Folbre, Barbara R. Bergmann, Gita Sen, Maria Floro, eds., Women's Work in the World Economy. London: Macmillan, 1991.
Heather Boushey. Good times, bad times recession and the welfare debate: recession means tougher times for working families.
Juliet Schor. The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure.
Juliet Schor. The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer.
Waring, Marilyn. If Women Counted, Macmillan (1988)

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