Value of women\\\'s unpaid work equivalent to 10.75pc of GDP

FE Team | Published: March 08, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

FE Report
The total unpaid work carried out by women per year is worth Tk 111.59 billion or USD 14.45 billion in Bangladesh which is 10.75 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), a survey of an independent think-tank has estimated.
According to the survey conducted by Unnayan Onneshan, the total engagement of women in domestic work in Bangladesh might be equivalent to 9.3 million full employments per year.
Besides, women who are employed in different types of professional services spend on an average 3.69, 5.2, 4.8, and 4.3 hours per day respectively for household work, it said.
The nation-wide survey based on estimate of women's domestic work in Bangladesh, first of its kind in the country, has been released in connection with the International Women's Day.
The total GDP of the country was Tk 10,379.90 billion in the fiscal year (FY) 2012-13.
"Structural rigidities and traditional patriarchal institutional structure are mostly responsible for the reproduction of the current practices," said the report.
Unnayan Onneshan conducted the country-wide survey in seven districts of seven administrative divisions. A total of 520 women, including 202 from rural and 318 from urban areas, were chosen randomly and interviewed for the purpose of this pioneering research.
The research organisation applied two recognised methods -- the opportunity cost and the market replacement cost -- to estimate the monetary value of the unpaid household work by women in the country.
The opportunity cost method, which measures the amount that women would earn if they were employed as waged labourers instead of being engaged in unpaid domestic work, estimates that the total unpaid women's work per year might be equivalent to Tk 1115.91 billion.
Using another method, the think-tank finds out that the total value of the work by women remaining unpaid in Bangladesh might be equivalent to Tk 336.918 billion or USD 4.36 billion, if the market replacement cost method is employed which is computed based upon what would have been spent to hire someone to carry out the work.
For addressing the issue of unpaid work in Bangladesh, Unnayan Onneshan calls for recognition of the embedded institutional rigidities that reproduce the system, formulate comprehensive social policy and institute a holistic social security system.
"Unless and until such realities are recognised and responded with appropriate policies, institutional structures and monetary instruments, it will be impossible for achieving real equality in the society," the think-tank added.
Unnayan Onneshan observes that the economic value of unpaid domestic work by women would have been much higher if the wages of women in Bangladesh were not comparatively low and the wage deferential between men and women was not so high.
"The percentage of the value of unpaid work in the share of GDP in Bangladesh remains low as compared to other countries due to the lower wage structure in different occupations in Bangladesh," said the report.
Although measurement of unpaid work of women in terms of monetary value is very complex and might be impossible to generate a precise, accurate value of unpaid work of women, Unnayan Onneshan notes that the main point of this study is not to arrive at any appropriate figure, rather to give a sense of the magnitude of contributions made by women by presenting a reasonable range of estimates.
Referring to the rising share of women in the labour force as 'feminisation of labour,' the Unnayan Onneshan reasons that the growing need and decline of familial support along with the ever-increasing pressures for sustenance have pushed women to engage in income generating activities.