After tutoring for six hours, running around markets to get groceries, looking after the family and household, my mother sighed, "We are not even seen as workers." It is the truth that women's work and labour have been veiled from the socio-economic gaze. The word 'economics' has a Greek origin. 'Eco' means home, and 'nomos' means accounts; thus, household management. Sadly, a lot of household work falls under the purview of women. The work is unpaid and does not fit into the account of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Gender roles define how work is distributed, and it is time to take note of that. 

 

Feminist Economics aims at studying 'neglected' areas in the field of Economics. It includes unpaid care work, domestic violence, resource distribution, and gendered aspects of economic theories. With an aim to enhance the lives of women, children and men, feminist economics focuses on gender-aware economics and policy analysis. The unpaid care economy has been of prime importance to growth but is often invisibilized. Aspects of Feminist Economics are essential for economic recovery in the post-pandemic world where we aim to achieve UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

 

OECD defines unpaid care work as "... all unpaid services provided within a household for its members, including care of persons, housework and voluntary community work. These activities are considered work because theoretically, one could pay a third person to perform them." The 2019 NSS report highlighted that women spend 299 minutes on unpaid household work whereas men spend only 97 minutes. This inequality is threefold and has increased because of the pandemic. According to the Center for Global Development, women (15-64 years old) worked an additional 173 unpaid extra hours while men worked just 59 hours. In India, this inequality is more drastic; women took ten times more work. Women are at the forefront of every crisis, bearing the brunt with no armour or security. Resource distribution within the homes has always had women and girls on the shorter side of the stick. Food, education, rest, hygiene have always been scarce, affecting how women work within the formal and informal economy. The pandemic intensified the existing uneven resource distribution. Dalberg, a consulting firm, highlighted that women had to cut back on their food consumption from March to October last year. Women had run out of menstrual pads and could not access contraceptives due to disrupted public health campaigns. The pandemic led to a surge in unemployment rates, but women are unable to re-enter the workforce. 

 

It is no hidden fact that women have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic regarding work, income, safety and human rights. While vaccination drives are seen as a beam of hope, various factors have led to a vaccine gender gap. Vaccine hesitancy, digital divide, immobility are some key factors, among others. According to Cowin, for every 1000 vaccinated men, only 856 were given to women. Moving forward to a more robust, resilient, but unequal economy is an unjust notion for people and the economy.

 

The Way Forward

The pandemic has hammered the economy, and more crises might be the final nail in the coffin. The way forward really needs to account for the neglected spots in contemporary economics. Measures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) have repeatedly failed to account for a large section of the work undertaken by women. The first step would be to acknowledge that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. The said problem needs concrete and systemic steps for the valuation of the invisible care economy. Marilyn Waring, a principal founder of feminist economics, highlighted that "GDP counts oil spills and wars as contributors to economic growth, while child-rearing and housekeeping are deemed valueless." In a post covid world, gender-aware policies and economic outlook can solve fundamental inequalities. Such policies would mean that the veiled unpaid care economy has adequate infrastructure to sustain. New measures such as time indicators can help locate needs within the economy and alleviate time poverty. Furthermore, investment in this field of study can formulate and implement better policies that uplift marginalised communities.

 

The various challenges imposed by the covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of social security. The lack of a security net made the covid waves harder to stand, especially for the marginalised groups. An economy with principles of feminist economics can solve the underlying economic, social and political issues.