Gender Patterns and Value of Unpaid Work
Xiao-yuan Dong, Xinli An – Despite its important implications for well-being and gender equality, unpaid work is not counted in conventional income and labour force statistics. The provision of household and care services, viewed as “the natural duty of women”, is commonly taken for granted in policy making.
The analysis reveals the tension between paid and unpaid work in China’s new market economy. While both paid and unpaid work are essential to national well-being, as the analysis shows, the overriding concern of the Chinese government in the post-reform period has been to improve the productivity of paid work and maximize growth of per capita GDP, assuming that the provision of domestic and care services will adjust itself accordingly.
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