BANGKOK, March 23 — Women in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region spend four hours and 20 minutes daily on work not compensated by wages.
The said unpaid work includes taking care of children, the elderly and sick family members as well as doing household chores and voluntary work within the community.
A report by the APEC Policy Support Unit found this to be highly disproportionate when compared with men, as it is almost three times the time spent by men.
Across the world, is not much different with women devoting an average of 4 hours and 32 minutes per day on unpaid care and domestic work.
“The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that unpaid care and domestic work amounts to an aggregate 9 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to US$ 11 trillion in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms.
“The value of women’s unpaid work is estimated to represent 6.6 per cent of GDP or US$8 trillion (RM33.7 trillion) while men’s contribution equals 2.4 per cent of GDP or US$3 trillion (RM12.6 trillion)
“The value of unpaid care and domestic work differs across economies. Data covering eight of the 21 APEC members show the total unpaid work is as high as 41.3 per cent of GDP in Australia while it is lower in Thailand, at 5.5 per cent of GDP,” it said.
A senior researcher with the APEC Policy Support Unit Rhea C. Hernando said the magnitude and impact of the burden that women carry were influenced by socioeconomic conditions, such as household income, education levels, marital status and children.
“For example, women’s share of unpaid work generally doubles once they get married and have children,” said Hernando, who wrote the report.
Meanwhile, APEC Secretariat’s Executive Director Dr Rebecca Sta Maria said women bear an unequal share of unpaid labour and domestic work which has affected their participation in economic and social activities.
“APEC must continue to champion more frequent policy discussions about women’s economic empowerment, as well as promoting the importance of sex-disaggregated data, which will then make our economy more inclusive, with palpable benefits for everyone,” she said.
— Bernama
