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Reducing and Redistributing Unpaid Work: Stronger Policies to Support Gender Equality
Author:
Cristian Alonso
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Mariya Brussevich null

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Ms. Era Dabla-Norris
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Yuko Kinoshita null

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Ms. Kalpana Kochhar
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Series:
IMF Working Papers
Volume/Issue:
Volume 2019: Issue 225
Language:
English
Publication Date:
15 Oct 2019
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513514536.001
ISBN:
9781513514536
ISSN:
1018-5941
Pages:
35
Keywords:
WP; unpaid work; Female Labor Force Participation; Gender Equality; care work; employment status; work arrangement; job matching; Women; Gender diversity; Gender inequality; Labor markets; Global; Africa
Legal-disclaimer:
IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.
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Unpaid work, such as caring for children, the elderly, and household chores represents a significant share of economic activity but is not counted as part of GDP. Women disproportionately shoulder the burden of unpaid work: on average, women do two more hours of unpaid work per day than men, with large differences across countries. While much unpaid care work is done entirely by choice, constraints imposed by cultural norms, labor market features or lack of public services, infrastructure, and family-friendly policies matter. This undermines female labor force participation and lowers economy-wide productivity. In this paper, we examine recent trends in unpaid work around the world using aggregate and individual-level data, explore potential drivers, and identify policies that can help reduce and redistribute unpaid work across genders. Conservative model-based estimates suggest that the gains from these policies could amount to up to 4 percent of GDP.
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Cover IMF Working Papers
IMF Working Papers
ISSN:
1018-5941
Publisher:
International Monetary Fund