A historian discusses the resurfacing of the 'wages for housework' debate, highlighting the ongoing value and recognition of unpaid domestic labor.
Since research revealed earlier this year that stay-at-home parents carry out labor worth approximately €57,000, there has been an ongoing discussion on if there should be wages paid for housework or homemakers. None of the issues raised in the ‘wages for housework movement’ of the 1970s have gone away, a historian has claimed. \“The women in my book, you know, in the 1970s they really kind of caused controversy when they made this demand,” she said.
“This is the time when women all over the world were kind of getting together to demand equal rights. “But their argument was that equal rights are really important but they don't go far enough, because we live in an economy that relies on this essential work - caring for children, maintaining households, taking care of the sick and the elderly - and that work is unpaid. Ms Callaci said that by demanding wages for housework, these women “were not just looking for a pay check”, they were “really trying to challenge that entire system”. “While this argument was, you know, really controversial at the time, I think it's really clear that they were onto something,” she said. “I mean, you can think about some of the statistics, for example, in the UK, women do an estimated £23.2 billion hours of unpaid childcare every year - that's worth something like £382 billion. \Ms Callaci said there is a question to be asked about what our lives could be like if this work was compensated. “What kinds of ways would we distribute our wealth differently? Woman putting clothes in washing machine. Image: Alamy “We should be entitled to stay at home and take care of our young family - that might include any or all of the housework that goes along with that, the mental load, typically as women as well,” she said. “Is that valued in society? I think it is - but whether or not we then get compensated for that or that value is shown by whatever Government is in power at the time - I think that's the big difference. “We are being told that we can have everything, but, you know, as women, we’re also being made to do everything we just we can't do that.” Catherine said that she is now in a position where she has to return back to work after maternity leave but she doesn’t think she’ll be able to do as many days as previously. “I've realised I can't be going back to the four days I was doing with my first child because I can't be doing everything and having that balance spending time with my children - it is really difficult,” she said. “I think that Governments, even in Ireland, need to know that this is really important - this is something we're going to be voting on and looking at
Housework Wages Women Equal Rights Gender Inequality Domestic Labor Social Change
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