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“Women do two-thirds of the world’s work for five percent of the income. But our work is unvalued and devalued, and we are unwaged and low-waged. We give birth to, raise and care for all the people of the world, ensuring the survival of every community in every country. Wealth and profit come from our work and the work of the people we produce. Yet our values of survival and welfare are dismissed, and the brutal values of the global market are imposed on us as inevitable. But together we can stop the world and change it.” www.allwomencount.net

Women’s organizations have been rooting for an international revaluation of women’s work for more than 40 years. Since then it was felt that if this were done it would change the conventional way of thinking and shatter the myth that men are the main breadwinners of the world. Not many countries have undertaken this despite heavy lobbying by women’s groups leading to the conclusion that there is a fear in having the status quo challenged.

The feeling is too that were women’s work reflected accurately in national statistics then there would be need to reward such work and the question would be where would that money come from, particularly now that there is financial turmoil in the world. It estimated that unwaged and under-waged work is worth $16 trillion internationally and over two-thirds of this, or $11 trillion, is the non-monetized, invisible contribution of women.

Even the cutting back of the world’s military budget, as some women’s groups have proposed, might not be enough to meet this need. Nevertheless, the lobby for recognition and payment for all of the unwaged work women do will not and cannot end. And while some governments choose not to take it on board, some have implemented poverty-reduction strategies that target women directly, which in some measure accept the point feminists have been making all along.

In Guyana, the Red Thread Women’s Organisation has carefully documented women’s waged and underpaid as well as unwaged work. The group, which is made up of and has worked with and among grassroots women for as long as it has been viable, has completed surveys and had documented anecdotal evidence of its members.

It is well known many women put in 14 to 18 hours a day at home. These do not include women who also work outside the home. The evidence shows that the poorest women work the hardest. These are the women whose homes have no electricity, running water or indoor toilets and who must fetch water daily from long distances to complete tasks, which some refer to as just housework. This also includes tending to kitchen gardens, poultry and domestic animals to assist with their families’ subsistence.

What is unfortunate is that many of the women who continue to perform these arduous tasks do not themselves place value on what they do, because they have been socialized to believe that it is women’s work and they must do it, regardless. A few would sometimes hear the word thanks or receive a gift or token, and some do not even expect it. Because of a lack of knowledge of their responsibility to themselves, some women continue to be treated as economic nonentities not only in the home, but at work and in the legal and social arena. There had been some amount of educational programmes on these issues but these have been fewer over the years, overtaken by other concerns such as AIDS awareness and basic bread and butter issues, which also directly affect women.

However, unless empowerment is placed on top of the agenda again, women’s contribution to society, particularly the menial aspect of it, will forever go unnoticed; their rights will forever be trampled on and only a few, as is the case at present, will ever have the opportunity to hop out of the continuing circle of poverty.

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