Abstract
Women’s production of the world’s unpaid care work (UCW) is three times greater than
that of men. This is problematic because the demands of UCW limit women’s labour
market opportunities. As a result of the constraints imposed by UCW, women are often
forced into taking on lower-paying, lower-skilled, irregular or informal employment. This
perpetuates female inequality, especially in poorer societies. UCW is neither formally
recognised as a contribution to the economy, nor is it accounted for in national
productivity calculations. This underestimates the true role of UCW in the economy, for
women in particular. Accounting for UCW could lead to better economic mechanisms
and financial interventions to empower women appropriately and address female
inequality. When governments think about women and how to support them, they do
so strictly from the perspective of paid labour or financial wellbeing. For example, in
South Africa, the National Framework for Local Economic Development (NFLED)
views female empowerment strictly in the sense of a female’s access to the informal
labour market.
Existing literature explores the various forms of UCW, such as childcare, elderly care
and domestic work, as well as their determinants, with most of this literature focused
on developed countries. As a result, there exists a shortage of UCW studies in Africa,
more so for South Africa – and particularly, on how UCW affects female wellbeing. One
reason for this is owing to developing countries having less frequent time-use data
(TUD). In South Africa, there are only two sets of time-use survey data, limiting studies
related to UCW. Thus, this study contributes to the limited South African literature on
UCW by assessing the impact of UCW on female wellbeing by leveraging data from
the most recent wave 5 of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) dataset
(2017– 2018).
We apply ordinary least squares (OLS), ordered probit and instrumental variable
models to version 2 of the dataset. Results suggest that when women have support
for UCW, their wellbeing increases. In particular, maternal grandmothers were found
to be significant role players in the lives of women with dependent children. Women
with dependent children experienced an increase in their subjective wellbeing (SWB)
when primary care is shared between the woman together with the other parent,
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spouse or partner. In urban areas, where superior childcare services, higher-paying
jobs, better access to maternity benefits, and greater opportunities for income
generation are available, mothers remain vulnerable to UCW. Based on the findings,
this study recommends reassessing the approach to public expenditure on social care
services to better support and empower women in South Africa.
Keywords: Unpaid Care Work, Subjective Wellbeing, Economic Empowerment, Local
Economic Development