## The Economic Cost of Devaluing “Women’s Work”

_IMF Blog, October 15, 2019_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [The Economic Cost of Devaluing “Women’s Work”](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work/index.json)
- [Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work/bundle-manifest.json)

## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Kristalina Georgieva, Cristian Alonso, Era Dabla-Norris, Kalpana Kochhar
- Published: October 15, 2019

---

### Overview
- As much as half of the world’s work is unpaid. And most of it is done by women.
- Unpaid work is not counted as part of economic activity because it is difficult to measure based on values in the marketplace.
- Estimates place the economic value of unpaid work between 10 and 60 percent of GDP.
- Reducing gender imbalances in unpaid work is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
- Reducing and redistributing unpaid work is framed as an economic imperative that can raise productivity and foster stronger economies.

### Key findings and statistics
- Women do 4.4 hours of unpaid work on average around the world and men only 1.7 hours.
- Country examples:
  - Norway: women do 3.7 hours of unpaid work, men contribute 3.
  - Egypt: women do 5.4 hours per day of unpaid work and men only 35 minutes.
  - US: women do 3.8 hours of unpaid work and men do 2.4 hours.
- More than 80 percent of unpaid work hours are devoted to domestic chores aside from child and elder care.
- UNICEF estimates that women spend 200 million hours per day worldwide simply fetching water.
- According to UNESCO, 130 million school-age girls are not in school.
- In India, women spend more than an hour every day collecting firewood.
- Iceland’s parental leave policy sets the length of leave at nine months and earmarks three for each parent.

### How unpaid work affects economies
- By not fully engaging women, economies misallocate resources—having women do low-productivity tasks at home instead of participating in higher-productivity market activities.
- The economy misses exploiting complementarity between women and men in the workplace, resulting in lower productivity and economic growth.
- Social institutions and values can constrain the redistribution of unpaid work by preventing men from sharing the burden at home.
- Some unpaid work is done by choice and childrearing has societal value, but the dominance of domestic chores in unpaid work hours highlights structural constraints limiting women's market opportunities.
- Women may choose to stay at home or work only part-time if market wages are too low or do not represent equal pay for equal work.

### Drivers and constraints
- Cultural norms, lack of public services and infrastructure, and absence of family-friendly policies often drive unequal shares of unpaid work.
- Limited access to education and health care restricts women’s human capital and labor market opportunities.
- Insufficient infrastructure (water, sanitation, electricity, transportation) increases time spent on low-productivity domestic tasks.

### Policy recommendations and interventions
- Improve basic infrastructure in developing economies: water supply, sanitation, electricity, and transportation to free women from low-productivity tasks.
- Expand internet access to enable participation in the gig economy and flexible work arrangements.
- Ensure access to education and health care for women and guarantee their use to build human capital.
- Enshrine women’s rights in law to help reshape social institutions and values that limit access to education and healthcare.
- Promote efficient and flexible labor markets, including active labor market policies to facilitate job matching.
- Encourage flexible work arrangements, which are associated with less female unpaid work and better work-life balance.
- Implement family-friendly policies:
  - Invest in early childhood education and care to facilitate women’s return to work.
  - Adopt greater parity in maternal and parental leave policies to smooth women’s return to work and engage fathers in care activities early on (example: Iceland’s nine-month leave with three months earmarked for each parent).
- Private sector engagement is necessary alongside decisive government action to seize large potential gains.

### Examples and supporting evidence
- Mexico and Brazil: better access to electricity, water, and less expensive appliances helped boost female labor force participation.
- Switzerland: active labor market policies facilitate job matching and are cited as supportive of redistributing unpaid work.
- Pakistan: security concerns lead many families to choose not to send girls to school, illustrating non-infrastructural barriers to service use.

*Source: Kristalina Georgieva, Cristian Alonso, Era Dabla-Norris, Kalpana Kochhar — October 15, 2019.*

---


## References

- [Kristalina Georgieva](https://www.imf.org/en/About/senior-officials/Bios/kristalina-georgieva)
- [Cristian Alonso](https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/cristian-alonso/)
- [Era Dabla-Norris](https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/era-dabla-norris/)
- [Kalpana Kochhar](https://blogs.imf.org/bloggers/kalpana-kochhar/)
- [عربي](https://www.imf.org/ar/News/Articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work)
- [中文,](https://www.imf.org/zh/News/Articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work)
- [日本語](http://www.imf.org/ja/News/Articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work)
- [Português](https://www.imf.org/pt/News/Articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work)
- [study](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2019/10/15/Reducing-and-Redistributing-Unpaid-Work-Stronger-Policies-to-Support-Gender-Equality-48688)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/eng-oct-11-map1.png](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/eng-oct-11-map1.png)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/eng-oct-11-parental-leave-1-1.png](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/eng-oct-11-parental-leave-1-1.png)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2019/10/15/blog-the-economic-cost-of-devaluing-women-work_