Unpaid work in Argentina is equivalent to 15.9% of GDP

A woman serves food in Quilmes, Argentina, during the covid-19 pandemic. Getty Images

"What they call love is unpaid work," could be read on banners of the great mobilization of March 8 in Buenos Aires for International Women's Day, two weeks before the Government decreed the mandatory quarantine due to the pandemic of the covid-19.

In Argentina, if quantified, unpaid domestic and care work would represent 15.9% of GDP.

The calculation makes it the sector with the greatest weight in the national economy, followed by industry (13.2%) and commerce (13%), according to the first report of the Argentine government on unpaid work.

The document is based on estimates based on the latest available official data, from 2013, which reveal that women perform 75% of tasks such as caring for, cleaning and cooking, compared to 25% of men.

In total, they spend 96 million hours a day working at home without receiving any pay.

If it were remunerated, the value would amount to 3,027,433 million pesos per year (38,813 million dollars).

“This asymmetric distribution helps to explain why their participation in the labor market is lower than that of men.

It also affects them having more precarious jobs, which in turn imply greater social vulnerability, for example not having access to a social work and, in the future, having a greater difficulty in accessing a retirement due to not having contributions.

Women have higher levels of unemployment, earn less and, consequently, are poorer.

In this sense, it is essential to understand that the conditions of paid work are closely linked to how unpaid tasks are solved, ”the report warns.

During the pandemic, those tasks that are carried out invisibly within the four walls of the home "were exposed, revealing the repercussions of a new normal that is difficult to sustain over time without substantial transformations."

While almost all economic activities fell due to mandatory isolation, unpaid care and domestic work soared to 21.8% of GDP.

“These tasks were increased due to the fact that schools remain closed so as not to continue spreading the virus, as well as spaces for the care and socialization of boys and girls, clubs, places where they go to play or meet, and the number is even lower. mobilization of grandmothers, aunts, cousins, friends who come to facilitate care tasks also in homes ”, details in a meeting with foreign correspondents Mercedes D'Alessandro, head of the Directorate of Economy, Equality and Gender, in charge of the elaboration of the report.

Female work overload has increased with new demands, such as helping children with their virtual classes and homework.

With the figures in hand, the Executive chaired by Alberto Fernández plans to carry out public policies that make it possible to reduce the unequal distribution of these tasks and their impact in other areas, says Lucía Cirmi, national director of care policies at the Ministry of Women, genders and diversity.

Among the priorities is to expand and improve the network of public care services, both for the elderly and for boys and girls.

Today, those who care for the elderly in residences of the Argentine social security (PAMI), receive 86 pesos an hour (just over a dollar).

In the case of public early childhood centers, by the age of two, coverage is only 11%.

Budgeting with a gender perspective

The 2021 budget, to be presented next week, will include a gender perspective for the first time.

This involves the inclusion of items that help reduce the gap between men and women, such as the construction of new kindergartens or the emphasis on urbanization to provide access to basic services such as running water, anticipates D'Alessandro.

The lack of connection to the water network - which affects 14% of urban households - complicates domestic tasks and increases the time women spend on them.

“In response to the request of the social, popular and feminist movements in the streets, the Government put a lot of focus on inequality in care because it understood that other issues with more press, such as violence or the wage gap, basically end explaining for these inequalities ”, affirms Cirmi.

The Caring for Equality campaign, the right to interrupt teleworking to dedicate to care tasks and the record presence of women in high government positions are also aimed at reducing the gender gap, which was even widened during the pandemic.

The main government measure to counteract the impact of compulsory isolation on the poorest population has been the Emergency Family Income, which is received by almost nine million people, 55.7% of whom are women.

This subsidy is aimed at workers without formal employment, but includes as the only exception to registered domestic workers because, in addition to having the lowest wages in the production system, many have seen them reduced even more and have also been left without other small jobs complementary in black.

The health emergency caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has had another adverse effect on the advancement of the feminist agenda in Argentina: it has suspended the sending to Congress of a bill for the voluntary interruption of pregnancy.

Presidential adviser Cecilia Nicolini avoids answering when the initiative will be debated, but ensures that Fernández's commitment remains intact.

"The government's equality agenda is not circumstantial, but rather a policy to transform Argentina," Nicolini emphasizes.

The pandemic and the severe economic crisis complicate that ambitious goal.