Women’s engagement in unpaid care work rose 128% during the Covid-19 pandemic
Representational image Bigstock
Kohinur Khyum Tithila
Publish : 23 Dec 2021, 02:57 PMUpdate : 23 Dec 2021, 03:01 PM
Rumpa Farzana, a 31-year-old homemaker, starts her day with chores before anyone else in her house wakes up in the morning. She lives with her husband and a five-year-old daughter.
Rumpa recently told Dhaka Tribune that she has been under immense pressure from unpaid care work ever since she married in 2016. The situation worsened with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and related lockdowns in March 2020, as her husband was forced to work from home; and he was of little help with household chores.
“My household work basically doubled with him staying home. I have to make tea and meals several times a day, as everyone is home all the time,” she said.
“I asked my domestic help to stop coming as I was concerned about the spread of Covid. I don’t think I have had a single moment to relax since then. I feel exhausted,” Rumpa added.
Like Rumpa, many urban women in Bangladesh are at risk of burnout from a significant increase in unpaid care work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts fear that this increase in workload will persist even when the pandemic dies down, leading to long-term mental and physical distress for women.
According to the survey report “Rapid Analysis of Care Work during Covid Pandemic in Bangladesh”, time-related engagement of women in unpaid care work, such as cooking, cleaning and washing has gone up by some 128% in urban areas.
The survey also found that a larger proportion of female respondents in urban areas (53.82%) are engaged in unpaid care work for at least 6 hours or more than in rural areas (45.60%).
Jahangirnagar University department of economics Associate Professor Sharmind Neelormi, who prepared the survey report, told Dhaka Tribune that unpaid care work in urban areas is somewhat different from unpaid care work in rural areas.
“The Covid-19 situation intensified the burden of unpaid household work on women in urban areas more compared to rural areas. People’s lives were mostly disrupted in the urban areas and women in the household had to take up extra workload owing to the unprecedented lifestyle changes caused by the pandemic,” she told Dhaka Tribune.
About 71.5% of the women engaged in unpaid care worked for 3-5 hours before the pandemic. Unpaid care work hours increased for 37.8% of these women after the arrival of Covid-19.
Among employed women, 85% had to render more time for household unpaid care work during the pandemic, spending more than 4 hours per day on household chores during lockdowns.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), said a significant number of women worked as domestic help in urban areas but many of them are out of work now as their employers did not wish to risk their bringing Covid-19 into their homes.
“This section of women workers always helped ease the burden of unpaid care work on women in the urban areas, and now they have been pushed into poverty. A significant number of them might have left the city,” she told this correspondent.
She also pointed out that because of extra work in the home, a significant number of women in urban areas could not take care of their own health adequately, and this may have a long-term impact on their health even after the pandemic dies down.
Prof Tania Haque of the DU women and gender studies department told Dhaka Tribune that many women may not be able to return to their jobs as everyone else in their families have become “habituated with their services” and expect them to undertake all the responsibilities they handled during the Covid lockdowns.
“A woman in many families is seen as someone who is domesticated and obligated to do all the household and care work, regardless of her mental and physical exhaustion,” she added.
Manusher Jonno Foundation has recommended that women’s unaccounted work be formally accorded recognition.
“Much more work has to be done on gender norms and gender roles in order to understand what is changing and what needs to change. Social campaigns on this are another way to influence the attitude of society about men's work and women's work. It is important to create awareness about the value of unpaid work that should go hand in hand with efforts to re-shape attitudes, and the campaign has to be at a national level although different components may be addressed separately,” according to the social welfare organization.
Unpaid domestic work burnout in urban women
Rumpa Farzana, a 31-year-old homemaker, starts her day with chores before anyone else in her house wakes up in the morning. She lives with her husband and a five-year-old daughter.
Rumpa recently told Dhaka Tribune that she has been under immense pressure from unpaid care work ever since she married in 2016. The situation worsened with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and related lockdowns in March 2020, as her husband was forced to work from home; and he was of little help with household chores.
“My household work basically doubled with him staying home. I have to make tea and meals several times a day, as everyone is home all the time,” she said.
“I asked my domestic help to stop coming as I was concerned about the spread of Covid. I don’t think I have had a single moment to relax since then. I feel exhausted,” Rumpa added.
Like Rumpa, many urban women in Bangladesh are at risk of burnout from a significant increase in unpaid care work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts fear that this increase in workload will persist even when the pandemic dies down, leading to long-term mental and physical distress for women.
According to the survey report “Rapid Analysis of Care Work during Covid Pandemic in Bangladesh”, time-related engagement of women in unpaid care work, such as cooking, cleaning and washing has gone up by some 128% in urban areas.
The survey also found that a larger proportion of female respondents in urban areas (53.82%) are engaged in unpaid care work for at least 6 hours or more than in rural areas (45.60%).
Jahangirnagar University department of economics Associate Professor Sharmind Neelormi, who prepared the survey report, told Dhaka Tribune that unpaid care work in urban areas is somewhat different from unpaid care work in rural areas.
“The Covid-19 situation intensified the burden of unpaid household work on women in urban areas more compared to rural areas. People’s lives were mostly disrupted in the urban areas and women in the household had to take up extra workload owing to the unprecedented lifestyle changes caused by the pandemic,” she told Dhaka Tribune.
About 71.5% of the women engaged in unpaid care worked for 3-5 hours before the pandemic. Unpaid care work hours increased for 37.8% of these women after the arrival of Covid-19.
Among employed women, 85% had to render more time for household unpaid care work during the pandemic, spending more than 4 hours per day on household chores during lockdowns.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), said a significant number of women worked as domestic help in urban areas but many of them are out of work now as their employers did not wish to risk their bringing Covid-19 into their homes.
“This section of women workers always helped ease the burden of unpaid care work on women in the urban areas, and now they have been pushed into poverty. A significant number of them might have left the city,” she told this correspondent.
She also pointed out that because of extra work in the home, a significant number of women in urban areas could not take care of their own health adequately, and this may have a long-term impact on their health even after the pandemic dies down.
Prof Tania Haque of the DU women and gender studies department told Dhaka Tribune that many women may not be able to return to their jobs as everyone else in their families have become “habituated with their services” and expect them to undertake all the responsibilities they handled during the Covid lockdowns.
“A woman in many families is seen as someone who is domesticated and obligated to do all the household and care work, regardless of her mental and physical exhaustion,” she added.
Manusher Jonno Foundation has recommended that women’s unaccounted work be formally accorded recognition.
“Much more work has to be done on gender norms and gender roles in order to understand what is changing and what needs to change. Social campaigns on this are another way to influence the attitude of society about men's work and women's work. It is important to create awareness about the value of unpaid work that should go hand in hand with efforts to re-shape attitudes, and the campaign has to be at a national level although different components may be addressed separately,” according to the social welfare organization.