Gender And Wage Disparity: The Issue Of Unpaid Domestic Work In Canada

Gender inequality and wage disparity have been major issues in the society. One of the most prominent aspect of this discrimination is the unpaid domestic work that involves a huge number of women workforce (Hakim, 2016). The gender and wage disparity in the Canadian society cannot only be considered as a social issue but also an economic one as well. The history of women and unpaid labor can be traced back to the era of European invasion to Canada. It has been noticed that during the first European invasion, women were not included in the workforce (Karamessini & Rubery, 2013). However, these women often took significant roles as unpaid interpreters. During the British era, the Canadian society has witnessed a rise in the agriculture based economy. During this time, the wage disparity and exploiting women as unpaid labors increased significantly (Clark, 2013). It has been noticed that the women were not considered as able to join the male dominated workforce and were married off. However, these married women and their children were counted as a single production unit that the farm owners could use as unpaid labors.

Women in the ire-colonial Canadian society were highly valued and used to be counted an were counted as a single production unit that the farm owners could use as unpaid labors.

Women in the pre-colonial Canadian society were highly valued and used to be counted and honored as important components in the Canadian households (Baxter & Hewitt, 2013). Moreover, as a result of strong kinship the women were not dependent on the male members of the families. However, along with colonization, the segregation in labor has also started. Starting from the post-colonial era, the volume of unpaid work is around 51% of the total work done by women (Summerfield, 2013). The aim of the research is to analyze the situation of women as unpaid domestic workers in the post-colonial era.

1. Did the immigration policies play influential role in increasing the number of unpaid domestic workers in Canada?

2. Did the family and property ownership laws aggravated the problem of unpaid domestic work?

3. Has the government played significant role in reducing the issue of unpaid labor? RQ4: Did lack of recognition in the workplaces aggravate the situation? RQ5: Does women education play influential role in unpaid domestic labor?

Women and Unpaid Domestic Work

This essay report is the part of first report in which research was carried on women and unpaid domestic work. The thesis statement on which discussion is carried is gender and wage disparity in the society. In the history it was seen that unpaid labor are increasing but women in the colonial period were valued and were appreciated for their household work. The aim of this essay is to find out the situation that was faced by the women in the post-colonial era due to domestic workers.

Unpaid domestic work and women labor is considered as one of the major issue in the society. The unpaid workforce is increasing as there is gender equality in the society; women are not treated equally to men. The unpaid domestic labor refers to all the household work and managing the daily tasks (Gardiner, Himmelweit & Mackintosh, 2017). This is actually the real work done by women but still it is devalued by the men.

The reason for choosing women and unpaid domestic work as my research topic is to deeply understand the issue and challenges faced by the women. It helps in knowing the concerns and how devalued women are for their work (Glucksmann, 2016). The major reason to work on this topic was to access the obstacles faced by women for paid opportunity.

The aim of recognizing or considering this topic was that it offers economic benefits. It was estimated that domestic unpaid work done by women is 13% to the total GDP. The benefit of understanding this issue can help in improving the economic gain (Glucksmann, 2016). Once the concern is understood it helped the government to take proper action plans by empowering the women and resolving the issue of unpaid and underpaid domestic or agricultural work.

This topic is related to the course as it covers the concern of gender equality and importance of giving equal opportunity (Lansky, Ghosh,  Méda, Rani & Nussbaum, 2016). It not only helped in resolving the issue of pay factor but also helped in offering equal participation to women. It improved the overall quality of work by minimizing the pressure over women (Javalgekar, 2017).
 The three main things I learned by researching this topic was:

• Effect of unpaid domestic work on the economy- It was found that the unpaid domestic work is not included in the GDP of the county. This is the reason domestic work is not treated as important (Roberts, 2018). Thus, it was seen that there are arguments that domestic work should be considered in an economic production.
• Inequality- It was observed that the issue of unpaid domestic labor arises with the fact that there is a male dominating workforce and women are treated as their single unit (Roberts, 2018). Women are never valued or appreciated for their hard work and they are used as a labor.
• Domestic Labor Force- The labor force is used to describe the group of working class in a particular region or a location. Domestic labor covers the household work that is done by the women.

Unpaid labor is defined as a labor that does not receive money for performing their task. Unpaid work decreases the productivity of the country and also decreases GDP. It is a visible form of activity that is done on the household but women are not treated special (Roberts, 2018).

Social inequality occurs when some resources are treated equally and there exists a differences in the services offered to them (Skinner & Escriva, 2016). From this research, it was found that women are not considered strong and they are just considered as a helping hand for the family. Social inequality is linked with the economic equality (Lyonette & Crompton, 2015). Gender inequality is an situation in which unequal treatment is done between women and men.

Domestic labor force covers the household work that is performed by an individual and mostly women. They cover the activities that are done in the house for which women are not paid. Domestic service or the employment of people without any wage in their employer's residence is called as unpaid labour (Skinner & Escriva, 2016). It also increases the unemployment and underemployment ratio of the country that directly links with the economy.

It is seen in the recent years that women are entering in the labor market but there are various barriers faced by the women like vulnerability in employment, inequality in wages received as compared to men (Edgell,  Gottfried & Granter, 2015). The burden of unpaid work is seen high among women this is due to the inequality. In colonial period, it was seen that women are given the task to manage the household work whereas men take care majorly over the economy (Strauss, 2015). Thus, it can be said as unpaid service refers to the contribution of labor to that part of economic activity that is outside the production boundary like women defined for the System of National Accounts. Gender is one of the core reasons behind unpaid work and it is seen that women spend most of time in unpaid events as compared to men. Women devote most of the time in household activities. Unpaid is the term that is used for an individual who is performing their activity.

Conclusion

Unpaid domestic work is the major issue of the society. This arises because women are not treated equally to men. This helped in finding out the major issues that were faced by women in the colonial period. The domestic labor is affecting the economy and occurs due to the inequality at the workplace.

References

Edgell, S., Gottfried, H., & Granter, E. (Eds.). (2015). The Sage Handbook of The sociology of work and employment. Sage.65(2), 67-90.

Gardiner, J., Himmelweit, S., & Mackintosh, M. (2017). Women's domestic labour. New Left Review, 89(1), 47-58.

Glucksmann, M. (2016). Completing and complementing: The work of consumers in the division of labour. Sociology, 50(5), 878-895.

Javalgekar. A. (2017). Unpaid Domestic Labour And The Invisibilisation Of Women’s Work. Retrieved from https://feminisminindia.com/2017/09/04/unpaid-domestic-labour/.

Lansky, M., Ghosh, J., Méda, D., Rani, U., & Nussbaum, M. C. (2016). Women, gender and work. Social choices and inequalities, 2.

Lyonette, C., & Crompton, R. (2015). Sharing the load? Partners’ relative earnings and the division of domestic labour. Work, employment and society, 29(1), 23-40.

Roberts, S. (2018). Domestic labour, masculinity and social change: insights from working-class young men’s transitions to adulthood. Journal of Gender Studies, 27(3), 274-287.

Skinner, E., & Escriva, A. (2016). Domestic Work and Transnational Care Chains in Spain. In Migration and Domestic Work (pp. 125-138). Routledge.

Strauss, K. (2015). Social reproduction and migrant domestic labour in Canada and the UK: Towards a multi-dimensional concept of subordination. In Vulnerability, Exploitation and Migrants (pp. 59-71). Palgrave Macmillan, London.