•Latest survey by UN women says that the legal loopholes in Kenyan constitution are exposing women more to unpaid work as Kenya’s economic policies do not recognize or provide for financial compensation for domestic care work.
•A 2019 study carried out by OXFAM in five informal settlement areas in Nairobi shows that men spent 1.5 times more time in paid work in comparison to women.
Image: /COURTESY
Joyce Njeri wakes up every morning and gets straight to work, she prepares the kids for school, gets the house dusted then does utensils and the other household chores.
Being a housewife she has had to depend on her husband for everything financially, and so is the story of a lot of women who dedicate their time to take care of children and homes.
With no proper way to quantify the value of Njeri’s domestic work, it is now emerging that women are increasingly becoming engaged more in unpaid work than men.
In Kenya, as in many parts of the world, this invisible labor force is predominantly shouldered by women and girls, encompassing a range of responsibilities crucial for the functioning of households and communities.
The latest survey by UN women says that the legal loopholes in the Kenyan constitution are exposing women more to unpaid work as Kenya’s economic policies do not recognize or provide for financial compensation for domestic care work.
“This is because proving monetary and non-monetary contributions to matrimonial property presents evidentiary challenges, as currently there is no formula for quantifying the unpaid domestic work of women as a “contribution,” says a survey.
Care work is defined as the provision of unpaid services to people (in households and communities) and housework that facilitates this, such as cooking, washing clothes and shopping.
While it lacks the allure of financial transactions and profit margins, unpaid care work constitutes a substantial portion of economic activity, albeit without monetary compensation.
Care work done by Kenya women in their households across the country is unrecognized as an economic contribution, and not valued or compensated in any way.
This according to UN Women has disadvantaged women, who in most cases shoulder parental responsibilities, home care and farm work.
A 2019 study carried out by OXFAM in five informal settlement areas in Nairobi shows that men spent 1.5 times more time in paid work in comparison to women.
Further, in sub-Saharan Africa, the divide is even more pronounced, with women dedicating an average of 263 minutes per day to unpaid care work, compared to men's 78 minutes.
This state of affairs was connected to a lack of resources to hire caretakers, insecurity and a lack of access to health services, clean water and sanitation, which force women to forgo paid work and undertake unpaid care work of children, the elderly and the sick.
“It is essential for poverty reduction, human development and elimination of gender inequalities in the division of labor between paid and unpaid work, which often limits women’s access to resources and time,” read the UN Women report.
According to the UN, the lack of proper guidelines on the recognition of care work has seen Some judges recognise women’s unpaid care and domestic work, while others do not.
It adds that there is no High Court or Ministry of Justice guidance on which course to follow leaving lower court judges unsure how to proceed.
Under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Kenya and other global states pledged to recognise and value unpaid care and domestic work.
This was to be done through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
UN women is now recommending that Kenya should research to measure and value the unremunerated work of women, in line with the CEDAW committee’s general recommendation.
The committee proposed the measurement and quantification of the unremunerated domestic activities of women and their recognition in the gross national product.
“Policy actions and social reforms should be undertaken to mainstream unpaid work into the economy” reads the report.
According to Elizabeth Wanja, Board Member - Kijiji Afrika A non-profit organization that caters to people of African descent in the diaspora, the Kenyan government has embarked on a crucial endeavor through the draft National Care Policy to acknowledge, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work among individuals, irrespective of gender.
“By involving all stakeholders – including men and women, boys and girls, the private sector, and the government – the policy aims to alleviate the burden on women and pave the way for a more equitable distribution of care responsibilities,” says Wanja.
She adds that unpaid care work may not feature prominently in economic discourse, but its impact reverberates throughout society.