Valuing women's domestic work

Our women's economic realities do not support the argument that women's empowerment is gaining traction in Bangladesh. Rather, what has been reported in the media in this regard, based on facts and findings, simply refutes it. A survey report published recently by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) says that women's domestic labour, which is eight times more than men's, goes unrecognised. Domestic and care work is said to take up 1.6 hours per day for men and 11.7 hours (almost half a day) for women, according to the study. Women also spend 1.2 hours doing productive work in addition to unpaid work. Men spend 6.1 hours in productive labour. So, women's labour continues to be five times less recognised than men's.

These statistics merely show that men are still far from joining hands with female family members to relieve the latter's strain by sharing daily domestic responsibilities. We believe that achieving gender equality will be a long way off unless women's domestic responsibilities are socially recognised. It is imperative that all hurdles to formal recognition of our women's home chores should be removed. By a long shot, the widely held out-of-date social stigma that only women are fit for household tasks and that those do not belong to men's preserve should be taken with a grain of salt.

Denying women's unpaid labour is equivalent to discounting their contribution. Furthermore, the lack of acknowledgment for their unpaid labour denigrates them as a driving force in our economy. So, time has come to begin a nationwide public awareness campaign to promote the concept that domestic tasks are not just for women; they are also appropriate for our men.

Samina Akhter, Dhaka,

saminaakhter1709@gmail.com