Gender, work and livelihoods

Through exploring key activities that reproduce and sustain human life, we examine why certain forms of work are devalued and what consequences this brings to the lives of women.

Description

What is work and who counts as a worker are key questions that structure not only the labour market but also gender relations within the private sphere. Feminist scholars have been analysing the connexion between productive and reproductive labour, paid and unpaid work, for decades, and have shown that the hierarchies and inequalities that underly these activities are deeply gendered and raced. Indeed, jobs that relate to the reproduction of human life, such as care and domestic work, are still perceived as ‘feminine’ tasks, and as a consequence, remain largely underpaid, undervalued and under-protected compared to other sectors of activities. The pandemic crisis has also made more visible than ever before the burden of unpaid care work (cooking, cleaning, homeschooling and taking care of sick or elderly people) that falls onto women in their homes and families. Thus, we examine the dynamics that create such inequalities, gender roles and expectations in the labour market and at home, and how those dimensions impact the lives of women in situations of crisis or disaster.