Woman wins pay for five years of housework

Should housework be paid work? A Chinese woman has been granted compensation in her divorce for care work. The ruling has sparked a discussion that echoes a longstanding feminist demand. It was an ordinary, private story. After five years of marriage, a Chinese couple, surnamed Wang and Chen, began the painful process of getting divorced. But when the judge made his ruling, the personal became political. Chen was ordered to pay compensation to Wang for the unpaid labour of cooking, cleaning and child-rearing that she had contributed to the marriage. This compensation came to roughly £5,400. The pay-out has caused a stir in China and further afield. It sets a new precedent in Chinese law, but it also speaks to a sense of injustice many feel about the burden of domestic labour that falls on women. Ninety-four per cent of respondents to an online poll on a Chinese news site said that it was right to award money, but that the amount was too stingy. One Weibo user pointed out that the payment was less than the annual salary for a nanny. On average, women around the world spend 60% more time doing unpaid care work than men. A 2020 report by Oxfam found that women perform 12.5 billion hours of unpaid work every day. When you add paid and unpaid work together, the average woman does six weeks more work each year than the average man. Many believe that this work should be compensated. A campaign which started in the 1970s demanding that housework be properly paid has been growing. At first, these calls were dismissed, but over time they have helped break down a view of women as the “angel in the house”, selflessly scrubbing the dirt away. It is not only in China that the law has listened to these arguments. In Argentina, in 2019, a divorce court ordered a man to pay his ex-wife $179,000 for her 27 years of housework. These legal victories, however, are smaller in scale than the original vision of the International Campaign for Wages for Housework. The movement’s leading figures argued that the unpaid labour of women does not just benefit the man who cannot iron or will not change a nappy. They claimed that this unpaid labour underpinned all of society. Take the example of a man who works in a factory. He needs to be fed, to have clean clothes and still have time to rest; his children need to be looked after by someone. If his housework is being done for free by his wife, then his wages do not need to be as high. His employer can make more profit, and the consumer need not pay as much for the goods from this factory. The Oxfam report estimates the total value of women’s unpaid care work at $10.8tn per year. Global GDP is $87tn. Some argue that there would have to be huge changes in the world economy if this work were to be paid for. During their divorce, Wang said that her husband “didn’t care about or participate in any kind of chores”. Putting a price on housework may make more men like him care about the sexist division of labour. So, should housework be paid work? Home economics No, say some. Wages for housework would make personal relationships all about money. While domestic work should be shared more equally, marriage and family should not be turned into a transaction. This might even reinforce gender inequality in households, presenting a male primary breadwinner as a boss supervising the labour of his subordinate. Yes, say others. The demand for wages for housework gives people a language to talk about exploitation that is already happening. Paying for housework would ensure that women’s work is acknowledged. It could grant workers in the home financial independence, or even lead to a radical overhaul of the gendered structure of society. KeywordsPrecedent - An earlier event that is seen as an example or guide to be considered in later similar circumstances.