Govt asked to quantify, cost domestic work by women

By George Owiti

The government needs to quantify and cost unpaid; domestic, subsistence and care oriented work to improve the country’s GDP.

The Director of British Institute in Eastern Africa, Professor Ambreena Manji, says there is currently no value in unpaid care work in Kenya thereby undervaluing its GDP.

Professor Manju told a Gender Forum in Nairobi that the situation has made girl child and women more vulnerable to poverty than men, since most of them are engaged in unpaid work which not recognized by the government.

Domestic work by women is not quantified in GDP terms

She notes in the presentation she made at the forum that unpaid domestic work entails systematic transfer of hidden subsidies to the rest of the economy which goes unrecognized, imposing systematic time tax on women throughout their life cycles.

The director suggests that legislators be put to task to recognize the value of unpaid domestic, subsistence and care oriented work, so that they pass legislation to protect those engaged in such work who she says are mostly women.

She says the proposed quantification and costing of unpaid work will allow those engaged to be rewarded for their efforts since they spend time and energy while undertaking them hence should be considered doing important work.   

According to Professor Manji, the engagement by women in unpaid domestic work left them with no time to seek formal paying jobs.

She notes that a number of girls also drop out of school at tender ages due to being exposed to unpaid work, sighting those from hardship areas like North Eastern where there are lots of hardships, poverty and conflicts as examples.

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"Care work is a reality, it is more a burden to women than men; women are doing more unpaid work than men," Manji says.

Prof Manji told the forum, organized by the Hein Reich Boll Foundation that public participation is a must for gender parity and equity to be achieved adding that men must be pioneers of change to empower women so that they have equal opportunities.

She states that there is need to demand that more women be in cooperated in public sector to empower them and bridge the widening gap between men and women.

According to her, more women do not make it in politics because they get engrossed in domestic work alongside being blocked and frustrated by men who dominate in political parties’ leaderships, reason she observes there are no female governors in Kenya.

She observes that there is a looming care crisis since there are many girls going to schools currently, and will later seek for formal paying jobs adding that there would be no people to attend to unpaid work if the government fails to intervene.

Manji notes that the working paid women have double budgets as they have to pay for services of those handling domestic work in their homes, commonly known as house girls or nannies.

She says there are segregations in the places of work since most women lie at lower levels of unpaid work, resulting to unequal sharing of property, assets and dignity when men and women are compared.

"Both the national and county governments should establish cottage industries for women so that they work at their backyards to contribute to economic growth," recommends Manji.

According to her, women should also be provided with social amenities such as water and electricity by the government so that they do not spend lots of time looking for them.

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She states that most Kenyan companies avoid engaging women because they waste time on maternity leaves hence called on the government to give women subsidies to give birth and avoid crisis.

Professor Manji also recommends that civil society should improve choices of women through capacity building and awareness on their rights as outlined in the constitution and take up products available for them in the market.