Care work
Encyclopedia
Care work is a sub-category of work
that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. Oftentimes, it is differentiated from other forms of work because it is intrinsically motivated, meaning that people are motivated to pursue care work for internal reasons, not related to money
. Another factor that is often used to differentiate caring labor from other types of work is the motivating factor. This perspective defines care labor as labor undertaken out of affection or a sense of responsibility for other people, with no expectation of immediate pecuniary reward. Despite the importance of this intrinsic motivation factor, care work includes care activities done for pay as well as those done without remuneration.
Specifically, care work refers to those occupations that provide services that help people develop their capabilities
, or their ability to pursue the aspects of their life that they value. Examples of these occupations include child care, all levels of teaching (from preschool through university professors), and health care
of all types (nurses, doctors
, physical therapists and psychologists). Care work also includes the array of domestic unpaid work that is often disproportionately done by women.
Often, care work focuses on the responsibilities to provide for dependants- children, the sick
, and the elderly. However, care work also refers to any work done in the immediate service others, regardless of the recipient’s dependent or nondependent status.
Care work is becoming a popular topic for academic study and discussion. This study is closely linked with the field of feminist economics and is associated with scholars including Nancy Folbre
, Paula England, Maria Floro, Diane Elson, Caren Grown and Virginia Held.
or in the private sector
, contributes to the development of healthy and productive children. Effective care for the sick allows people to remain productive and continue contributing to society. In this sense, care work is directly related to the health of a society as well as to the economic development
of that society in that well-cared for people can more effectively contribute to the market
.
As stated before, care work is very important in terms of the way that humans interact and live. However, taking care of others seems to be quite costly. This is otherwise known as the care penalty. This penalty is dubbed so because a person’s work in order to take care of others is not compensated by any monetary means. According to Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, individuals who don’t take care of others—especially the next generation—will not be capable of reproducing themselves. Many solutions are offered, but one that she has highlighted is to persuade others to take on more responsibilities for care. This will teach people that care is necessary for the development of human life and the world at large. This special target of teaching individuals to care for others may lead to forms of distributional struggle. Folbre says that this struggle may define gender roles. One analogy she has brought to light is what is called the “King Midas Problem.” King Midas was very rich, as everything he touched would turn into gold. However, he touched his daughter once and she even turned into gold. He then realized that his feelings for her meant more than gold. This is a great example showing that feelings are not a substitute for tangible items that people may seem to think are more important.
The popular belief is that the household sector is a wealth spender, and not a wealth creator. According to Diane Elson, however, the household sector plays a very important role in wealth creation. Unlike the business sector, the wealth created by the household sector isn't in monetary form. This is understandable because most of the work done in the household sector is unpaid. The resulting wealth falls into the category of social wealth because the care work that parents perform in raising a child increases that child's ability to perform in society. Thus, care work is extremely important because it nurtures the generation that will eventually run society.
Part of the problem with today's economy is that we still ignore unpaid care work. As stated by Nancy Folbre in her story about the race designed by goddesses, we forget the real moral of the story. This moral states that when we put others before ourselves, and make sure to take care of all mankind, we end up winning the race even if we are the slowest, because nobody is left behind. Relating this back to modern day economics, we do not include unpaid care work, forgetting that what goes on in the home (paid or not) directly affects the overall society and its function. If we are to act as if unpaid care work does not matter, than we must think about the replacement cost of what might happen if there was no more care work.
Nonetheless, times have changed in the past century. Most women are now in the labor force rather than at home, and many believe that the "cult of domesticity" for women of the 19th and 20th centuries is a thing of the past. However, studies show that working women dominate in caring professions - such as teaching, childcare, nursing, social work, as well as others - and that most of these professions are paid much lower than that of the jobs that more men typically dominate. In addition, women still are expected in most families to do the housework and to raise the children. These things, combined with the idea that care work is unimportant, relates to the reason why care work is ignored from an economic point of view, and why women still have a difficult time escaping the female stereotypes of last century.
Women provide most unpaid childcare. However, men are more likely to help and support the elderly by providing care work for them, as well as supporting a very limited amount for childcare. Women dominate in caring professions: teaching, nursing, childcare, and also for the care of individuals with disabilities and the weak elderly. This domination restricts many other opportunities, which has effectively lowered the cost of care work in the market because women, without other options, provided these services without remuneration.
Women also carry a heavier burden of care work in the home in comparison to men. Why is this? Women tend to specialize in care due to two main reasons: Biological differences, and historical and cultural traditions. The biological differences explain that women show more affection and loving care for their care work as opposed to the male population. On the other hand, historical, and cultural traditions explain the glorification of women’s caring for others. In Nepal women work 21 more hours each week than men, and in India, 12 more hours.In Nepal
women work 21 more hours each week than men, and in India
, 12 more hours. In Kenya
8- to 14-year-old girls spend 5 hours more on household chores than boys. In all these cases most of these extra work hours for women are spent on care work. This poses a particular problem for women in that these extra hours of domestic care work translate into a difficult balance for women between market work and domestic work. In the world’s history, women have not been given many choices other than care work as the patriarchal systems use their physical force, property rights, and the cultural norms to force women to take over specializations that do not interest the male population.
The historical push of women into care work combined with the contemporary dominance of women in these fields, accounts for the modern conceptions that care work is inherently feminine work. However, care work is not naturally feminized. Instead, care work is only socialized into a feminine sphere, and is also done by males. Despite the social nature of the feminization of care work, it has become so feminized that there is often a stigma against men who engage in care work. This stigma may discourage men from entering care work as well as further propagate the belief that care work is inherently women’s work.
Furthermore, it must be noted that there are many differences in earning between high school graduates and college graduates. This difference is especially pertinent between male and female individuals searching for a job. If unemployed, the differences between the rates of high school graduates and college graduates may even be similar. However, women tend to find more opportunities in unpaid care work if they are unable to get into the paid work force. If individuals are unable to achieve a degree, they will not meet the threshold of what many jobs require. This inevitability is felt by much of the world population who are unable to attend school due to staying in their household to take care of elderly or sick family members.
Recently, individual people are not the only ones who claim to provide care. An increasing number of companies are claiming that they will care for you in order to attract you into purchasing their services. For example, Lufthansa, an airline company, had an advertisement that read, "Service as dependable as a shoulder to lean on." The accompanying picture displayed a woman leaning her head on a man's shoulder, with both sound asleep. In this case, the take-away message seems to be that a high degree of care translates into high quality. Another airline company, British Airways, had an ad that displayed the same message. It read, "New Club World cradle seat. Lullaby not included." The image accompanying the statement showed a woman caring for a baby in her arms. The baby's head, however, was switched with that of a relaxed and content passenger. These are only a few of the companies that are now promoting themselves as care-oriented in order to gain customers.
Historically care work has largely been associated with domestic
unpaid work, yet with the growth and changing nature of the market, care work is occurring more frequently in the paid sphere than it has in the past. . This shift has dramatic implications on both care work itself and on society as a whole. As care work is increasingly marketized there is a possibility that those that need care—the sick, the elderly and children—will not be able to afford the care they need Another concern is that the quality of care may decrease in response to the call for profit-making and efficiency.
As a consequence of these and other concerns, this marketization of care work is under much public and academic scrutiny. These discussions focus on an array of issues including explanations for the endemic low-pay of care work, the effects of the market on the quality of care work, and the implications of the market on care workers themselves. Five particularly prominent theories of care work includingdevaluation theory, public good theory, prisoner of love theory, commoditization of love theory and love and money theory are frameworks by which academics study and explain these phenomena. Each of these theories examines care work in relation to the market.
remain in societies. In short, devaluation theory asserts that decision makers under- estimate the contribution of female dominated jobs to organizational goals, including profits, and therefore underpay these workers.
The devaluation theory is supported by sociological studies. In 2002, sociologist Paula England conducted a studying that revealed, even after controlling for skill demands, educational requirements, industry, and sex composition, a net penalty of 5%–10% for working in an occupation involving care was found (one exception was nursing
, which did not seem to experience the pay penalty of other care work). Overall, the evidence suggests that care work pays less than would be expected, given its educational and other requirements. However, it is not necessarily clear that this relation is caused by discriminatory factors, although it is a likely explanatory factor.
, an example of care work, is a classic example of a public good. Care work is unique in the category of public goods, however, in that receiving care also helps recipients develop skills, values, and habits that benefit themselves and others. In short, care work, by developing peoples internal capacities, imbues them with future abilities to contribute to society in the form of a public good.
This theory may explain the low-wages characteristic of care work. The standard economic argument is that public goods will be underprovided by markets because there is no way to capture and turn into profits benefits that come through social interaction.
.
in economic policy
to conduct surveys that would measure unpaid labor and include these measures in the GDP. This bill was supported by many but not all feminist economists. Critics argue that this bill would romanticize care work and propagate gender biases in the field. Other critics argue that care work can be performed more efficiently outside the home. Finally, some critics believe that this would create a move for care givers to value efficiency over affection, quantity and quality.
Accounting for time spent in unpaid care is extremely difficult because it is often an emotionally-involved activity that isn't always reported as singular activities. This becomes even more difficult because there is a "social desirability" bias. For example, husbands will often report more time spent devoted to care work than their wives would report for them, and vice versa. People do this because providing care is considered praiseworthy. Thus, it is hard to make a survey that can get accurate results. However, most of the problems can be minimized through the use of a time diary. This method involves respondents describing the activities that they performed during the previous day. The responses are then standardized for analysis purposes. For example, "eating sandwich" and "drinking juice" would both be considered as "eating."
, and international migration
. For this reason, economists argue that there are differences between Northern and Southern countries that would influence the effectiveness of certain policies in the South. Public policies suggested for these regions include increased availability of day care centers, greater access to schools, greater access to health care, improved public transportation, increased access to telephones and more.
describes the term care penalty in depth in her book The Invisible Heart. Care penalties can refer to an array of sacrifices, whether it’s a loss of personal time, money, or experiences missed out on while providing care. The care work in question can be provided to children, animals, the elderly, the sick, the mentally challenged, the learning incapable, and other’s of like disability. Providing care work limits a person’s ability to compete with those who don’t have to provide such care. For example, say a single woman with the responsibility of a child is in the cards for a job promotion, but so is a single, childless woman. There is a high chance the company will take this into account and give the job to the woman who isn’t tied down to a child, because she likely has far more time to devote to the position.
Folbre points out that the concept of the care penalty leads to distributional struggles extremely relevant to gender role
s (see 5.3). In situations like the Good Parent’s Dilemma, this is made known. When two people choose to have a child, in most cases, one parent is forced to sacrifice far more than the other, so that the other can work and provide for the family. A vast majority of the time, the parent that ends up staying home and caring for the children is the mother. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report of 2005, there were only 143,000 homes run by stay-at-home dads, compared to 5.6 million homes run by stay-at-home moms, meaning that roughly 5,457,000 more woman are paying care penalties than men. When women make this sacrifice, it not only affects them in the moment, but it affects them even after the child is capable of being independent. By taking time off from their careers, these women are at a disadvantage in the work force for years to come.
Parenthood is seemingly the type of care work that evokes the most significant, and most common, care penalty. Since the mere cost in dollars of raising a child increases constantly, the sacrifices one has to make to raise children are increasing at the same rate. The amount of money parents give up to their children is only money they are taking away from themselves; this is an extreme care penalty. Separate from the issue of money, children tend to cause parents to make many other sacrifices. Being responsible for a child can dictate a person’s decisions on where to live, what to do in their free time, and what jobs to take. There are opportunities that are necessary to turn down when one is held accountable for another person’s well being, which is the perfect definition of the care penalty.
The care penalty is commonly a necessary evil. If someone is in need of supervision, there are not many options to give him or her the care they require. If a person didn’t want to or for some reason could not care for this person on their own, the only other course of action would be to pay someone else to provide them with the care they need. This is sometimes impossible, since professional care can be extremely costly and can seem inefficient. With professional care there also comes moral issues; it’s likely that a person wouldn’t trust a stranger to care for someone they love, and would find more peace of mind in taking on the responsibility themselves. For this reason, some victims of the care penalty have actually chosen the position, though they are aware of the sacrifices that come with it.
Many benefits arise when parents raise successful children. Not only do the children themselves benefit, but employers benefit from new, productive employees. Also, the elderly benefit from the Social Security taxes paid by the younger generations. Parents benefit because of reciprocity, with the child in the care-giving role and the parents in the care-receiving role. These positive externalities make it hard for those who provide the care services to charge a price that would reflect the true value of their services. Thus, the care penalty exists to this day.
Work
Work may refer to:Human labor:* Employment* House work* Labor , measure of the work done by human beings* Manual labor, physical work done by people* Wage labor, in which a worker sells their labor and an employer buys it...
that includes all tasks that directly involve care processes done in service of others. Oftentimes, it is differentiated from other forms of work because it is intrinsically motivated, meaning that people are motivated to pursue care work for internal reasons, not related to money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
. Another factor that is often used to differentiate caring labor from other types of work is the motivating factor. This perspective defines care labor as labor undertaken out of affection or a sense of responsibility for other people, with no expectation of immediate pecuniary reward. Despite the importance of this intrinsic motivation factor, care work includes care activities done for pay as well as those done without remuneration.
Specifically, care work refers to those occupations that provide services that help people develop their capabilities
Capability approach
The capability approach was initially conceived in the 1980s as an approach to welfare economics....
, or their ability to pursue the aspects of their life that they value. Examples of these occupations include child care, all levels of teaching (from preschool through university professors), and health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
of all types (nurses, doctors
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, physical therapists and psychologists). Care work also includes the array of domestic unpaid work that is often disproportionately done by women.
Often, care work focuses on the responsibilities to provide for dependants- children, the sick
Illness
Illness is a state of poor health. Illness is sometimes considered another word for disease. Others maintain that fine distinctions exist...
, and the elderly. However, care work also refers to any work done in the immediate service others, regardless of the recipient’s dependent or nondependent status.
Care work is becoming a popular topic for academic study and discussion. This study is closely linked with the field of feminist economics and is associated with scholars including Nancy Folbre
Nancy Folbre
Nancy Folbre is a feminist economist who focuses on economics and the family, non-market work and the economics of care.She is currently an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst....
, Paula England, Maria Floro, Diane Elson, Caren Grown and Virginia Held.
Importance
Care work is essential to human well-being. Without genuine care and nurturing, children cannot develop into high-functioning individuals, and adults have a hard time maintaining or expanding their well-being and productivity. Good childcare, whether provided in the homeHome
A home is a place of residence or refuge. When it refers to a building, it is usually a place in which an individual or a family can rest and store personal property. Most modern-day households contain sanitary facilities and a means of preparing food. Animals have their own homes as well, either...
or in the private sector
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
, contributes to the development of healthy and productive children. Effective care for the sick allows people to remain productive and continue contributing to society. In this sense, care work is directly related to the health of a society as well as to the economic development
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
of that society in that well-cared for people can more effectively contribute to the market
Market
A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...
.
As stated before, care work is very important in terms of the way that humans interact and live. However, taking care of others seems to be quite costly. This is otherwise known as the care penalty. This penalty is dubbed so because a person’s work in order to take care of others is not compensated by any monetary means. According to Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, individuals who don’t take care of others—especially the next generation—will not be capable of reproducing themselves. Many solutions are offered, but one that she has highlighted is to persuade others to take on more responsibilities for care. This will teach people that care is necessary for the development of human life and the world at large. This special target of teaching individuals to care for others may lead to forms of distributional struggle. Folbre says that this struggle may define gender roles. One analogy she has brought to light is what is called the “King Midas Problem.” King Midas was very rich, as everything he touched would turn into gold. However, he touched his daughter once and she even turned into gold. He then realized that his feelings for her meant more than gold. This is a great example showing that feelings are not a substitute for tangible items that people may seem to think are more important.
The popular belief is that the household sector is a wealth spender, and not a wealth creator. According to Diane Elson, however, the household sector plays a very important role in wealth creation. Unlike the business sector, the wealth created by the household sector isn't in monetary form. This is understandable because most of the work done in the household sector is unpaid. The resulting wealth falls into the category of social wealth because the care work that parents perform in raising a child increases that child's ability to perform in society. Thus, care work is extremely important because it nurtures the generation that will eventually run society.
Who Does Care Work?
Before the Industrial Revolution, care work (such as farming, taking care of the household, and raising children) was done by the entire family, and often involved the help of the entire community. In this sense, the core sphere (or care work) was not seen as separate from daily business interactions, because each sector of the economy depended on one another. However, thanks to the Industrial Revolution, the core sphere became more separate from jobs and business, which were always done outside and away from the home. As a product of a patriarchal society, men were the ones who "went out" to do their work in factories and other non-farming jobs. Thus, women, who were known for their nurturing attitudes, were left at home and expected to provide childcare and do the housework. This set up paved the way for the contemporary American family, with a breadwinner father, a homemaker mother, and their children. The problem with this, however, was that women's jobs in the home were not part of any market, and were therefore believed to be unimportant and were largely ignored.Part of the problem with today's economy is that we still ignore unpaid care work. As stated by Nancy Folbre in her story about the race designed by goddesses, we forget the real moral of the story. This moral states that when we put others before ourselves, and make sure to take care of all mankind, we end up winning the race even if we are the slowest, because nobody is left behind. Relating this back to modern day economics, we do not include unpaid care work, forgetting that what goes on in the home (paid or not) directly affects the overall society and its function. If we are to act as if unpaid care work does not matter, than we must think about the replacement cost of what might happen if there was no more care work.
Nonetheless, times have changed in the past century. Most women are now in the labor force rather than at home, and many believe that the "cult of domesticity" for women of the 19th and 20th centuries is a thing of the past. However, studies show that working women dominate in caring professions - such as teaching, childcare, nursing, social work, as well as others - and that most of these professions are paid much lower than that of the jobs that more men typically dominate. In addition, women still are expected in most families to do the housework and to raise the children. These things, combined with the idea that care work is unimportant, relates to the reason why care work is ignored from an economic point of view, and why women still have a difficult time escaping the female stereotypes of last century.
Women provide most unpaid childcare. However, men are more likely to help and support the elderly by providing care work for them, as well as supporting a very limited amount for childcare. Women dominate in caring professions: teaching, nursing, childcare, and also for the care of individuals with disabilities and the weak elderly. This domination restricts many other opportunities, which has effectively lowered the cost of care work in the market because women, without other options, provided these services without remuneration.
Women also carry a heavier burden of care work in the home in comparison to men. Why is this? Women tend to specialize in care due to two main reasons: Biological differences, and historical and cultural traditions. The biological differences explain that women show more affection and loving care for their care work as opposed to the male population. On the other hand, historical, and cultural traditions explain the glorification of women’s caring for others. In Nepal women work 21 more hours each week than men, and in India, 12 more hours.In Nepal
Nepal
Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...
women work 21 more hours each week than men, and in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, 12 more hours. In Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
8- to 14-year-old girls spend 5 hours more on household chores than boys. In all these cases most of these extra work hours for women are spent on care work. This poses a particular problem for women in that these extra hours of domestic care work translate into a difficult balance for women between market work and domestic work. In the world’s history, women have not been given many choices other than care work as the patriarchal systems use their physical force, property rights, and the cultural norms to force women to take over specializations that do not interest the male population.
The historical push of women into care work combined with the contemporary dominance of women in these fields, accounts for the modern conceptions that care work is inherently feminine work. However, care work is not naturally feminized. Instead, care work is only socialized into a feminine sphere, and is also done by males. Despite the social nature of the feminization of care work, it has become so feminized that there is often a stigma against men who engage in care work. This stigma may discourage men from entering care work as well as further propagate the belief that care work is inherently women’s work.
Furthermore, it must be noted that there are many differences in earning between high school graduates and college graduates. This difference is especially pertinent between male and female individuals searching for a job. If unemployed, the differences between the rates of high school graduates and college graduates may even be similar. However, women tend to find more opportunities in unpaid care work if they are unable to get into the paid work force. If individuals are unable to achieve a degree, they will not meet the threshold of what many jobs require. This inevitability is felt by much of the world population who are unable to attend school due to staying in their household to take care of elderly or sick family members.
Recently, individual people are not the only ones who claim to provide care. An increasing number of companies are claiming that they will care for you in order to attract you into purchasing their services. For example, Lufthansa, an airline company, had an advertisement that read, "Service as dependable as a shoulder to lean on." The accompanying picture displayed a woman leaning her head on a man's shoulder, with both sound asleep. In this case, the take-away message seems to be that a high degree of care translates into high quality. Another airline company, British Airways, had an ad that displayed the same message. It read, "New Club World cradle seat. Lullaby not included." The image accompanying the statement showed a woman caring for a baby in her arms. The baby's head, however, was switched with that of a relaxed and content passenger. These are only a few of the companies that are now promoting themselves as care-oriented in order to gain customers.
Baumol Effect
Caring for others has sparked a lot of controversy as the market prices of items that are required for care increase and just as many care opportunities continue to be non-paid. The costs are increasing and the relative rise of price for the services is not providing any substitutes; this is known as the Baumol Effect. William Baumol and William Bowen describe the Baumol Effect as when there is a relative rise of price of services without substitutes. For example, the costs of childcare and sending children to college have become notably higher than in recent years. To further the pressure on caregivers, elderly lives are increasing and there are fewer siblings to share elder care responsibilities as there were, for example, during the baby boom. However, one issue to note about this effect is people taking advantage of others due to rising costs of items needed for care. The Nice Person’s Dilemma is a risk that opportunists will take when they seize advantage of those who are generous and cooperative. If the Baumol effect occurs, many will take advantage of these “Nice Persons” and act as if they will pay them back, but never do because of the higher prices. This dilemma proves why individuals are unable to make any change in community care. It takes whole communities to commit this change in order for the communities to gain from provided care and make sure that people do not cheat the system through the Nice Person’s Dilemma.Care work and the Market
Today, there are four parts of the economy: Business, Household, Public, and Non-profit. Typically, we only think that the business sector creates any wealth, and that the other three serve the business sector and alongside it. The truth is that all four parts of the economy generate wealth, and that wealth flows over into other sections of the economy as well. Part of the reason that unpaid care work is largely ignored is because of this belief that the household does not form wealth. In reality, the household prepares children for the other parts of the economy, and without that, none of the other sectors would flourish.Historically care work has largely been associated with domestic
Domestic worker
A domestic worker is a man, woman or child who works within the employer's household. Domestic workers perform a variety of household services for an individual or a family, from providing care for children and elderly dependents to cleaning and household maintenance, known as housekeeping...
unpaid work, yet with the growth and changing nature of the market, care work is occurring more frequently in the paid sphere than it has in the past. . This shift has dramatic implications on both care work itself and on society as a whole. As care work is increasingly marketized there is a possibility that those that need care—the sick, the elderly and children—will not be able to afford the care they need Another concern is that the quality of care may decrease in response to the call for profit-making and efficiency.
As a consequence of these and other concerns, this marketization of care work is under much public and academic scrutiny. These discussions focus on an array of issues including explanations for the endemic low-pay of care work, the effects of the market on the quality of care work, and the implications of the market on care workers themselves. Five particularly prominent theories of care work includingdevaluation theory, public good theory, prisoner of love theory, commoditization of love theory and love and money theory are frameworks by which academics study and explain these phenomena. Each of these theories examines care work in relation to the market.
Devaluation Theory
Devaluation theory seeks to explain the low-wages that are typical of care work by focusing on the fact that many care workers are women and that gender based biasesSexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
remain in societies. In short, devaluation theory asserts that decision makers under- estimate the contribution of female dominated jobs to organizational goals, including profits, and therefore underpay these workers.
The devaluation theory is supported by sociological studies. In 2002, sociologist Paula England conducted a studying that revealed, even after controlling for skill demands, educational requirements, industry, and sex composition, a net penalty of 5%–10% for working in an occupation involving care was found (one exception was nursing
Nursing
Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death....
, which did not seem to experience the pay penalty of other care work). Overall, the evidence suggests that care work pays less than would be expected, given its educational and other requirements. However, it is not necessarily clear that this relation is caused by discriminatory factors, although it is a likely explanatory factor.
Public Good Theory
Care work has a multitude of indirect social benefits that associate it with a specific type of good known as a public goods; goods that have benefits that are impossible to deny to those who have not paid for them. EducationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, an example of care work, is a classic example of a public good. Care work is unique in the category of public goods, however, in that receiving care also helps recipients develop skills, values, and habits that benefit themselves and others. In short, care work, by developing peoples internal capacities, imbues them with future abilities to contribute to society in the form of a public good.
This theory may explain the low-wages characteristic of care work. The standard economic argument is that public goods will be underprovided by markets because there is no way to capture and turn into profits benefits that come through social interaction.
Prisoner of Love Theory
Care work has been defined as work that provides services based on sustained personal interaction, and is motivated (at least in part) by concern about the recipient’s welfare This understanding of care work has distinct effects both on the nature and wages of care work. If care workers are actually motivated by an intrinsic value for the work which they do, then economic theory asserts that they will tolerate lower wages for their work. In this sense, the low-wages of care work may be explained. Further, the connection that these workers feel to their work puts them in a poor bargaining position. For example, nurses may be reluctant to strike because a strike would negatively effect their patients whom they care about.Commoditization of Emotion Theory
Commoditization of emotion theory focuses on the effects of marketized care work on the care workers’ personal experiences and individual well-being. The commoditization of emotion theory asserts that many jobs in the new service economy require workers to act emotions they do not really feel and that this process is harmful to workers. For example, the commoditization of childcare may be overly emotionally exhausting on childcare workers due to the conflict between the natural emotions of this job and these workers’ need for pay. Arlie Russell Hochschild explores this theory in The Managed HearThe Managed Heart: the Commercialization of Human Feeling
The Managed heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling, by Arlie Russell Hochschild, was first published in 1983. A 20th Anniversary addition with a new afterword added by the author was published in 2003. Hochschild's text is seminal and scholars like Sarah J. Tracy and Stephen Fineman have...
.
“Love and Money” Theory
The “Love and Money” theory attempts to reconcile the perceived divide between work done for intrinsic motivation and work done for pay. Theorists assert that because male and female are seen as opposite, and because gender schema organize so much of our thinking, we develop a dualistic view that “women, love, altruism, and the family are, as a group, radically separate and opposite from men, self-interested rationality, work, and market exchange.” This belief has led to the idea that care work should not be done for pay because pay will undermine the intrinsic motivations for this work. However, studies have shown that these divides may not be so stark. Instead, it has been found that acknowledging rewards send the message that the recipient is trusted, respected, and appreciated These results suggest that the more that pay is combined with trust and appreciation, the less it drives out genuine intrinsic motivation—especially important in care work. As a result, theorists argue that the central problem with care work is under-demand and that care work should be better compensated by the market.Care Work and Public Policy
The debate surrounding care work has specific policy implications ranging from issues of market structure, work environments, incentive schemes, regulatory requirements, adequate financial support for care A second major policy area relating to care work involves the question of gender analysisGender analysis
Gender analysis is a type of socio-economic analysis that uncovers how gender relations affect a development problem. The aim may just be to show that gender relations will probably affect the solution, or to show how they will affect the solution and what could be done...
in economic policy
Accounting for Unremunerated Care
For example, The Unremunerated Work Act of 1993 would require the Bureau of Labor StatisticsBureau of Labor Statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. The BLS is a governmental statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and...
to conduct surveys that would measure unpaid labor and include these measures in the GDP. This bill was supported by many but not all feminist economists. Critics argue that this bill would romanticize care work and propagate gender biases in the field. Other critics argue that care work can be performed more efficiently outside the home. Finally, some critics believe that this would create a move for care givers to value efficiency over affection, quantity and quality.
Accounting for time spent in unpaid care is extremely difficult because it is often an emotionally-involved activity that isn't always reported as singular activities. This becomes even more difficult because there is a "social desirability" bias. For example, husbands will often report more time spent devoted to care work than their wives would report for them, and vice versa. People do this because providing care is considered praiseworthy. Thus, it is hard to make a survey that can get accurate results. However, most of the problems can be minimized through the use of a time diary. This method involves respondents describing the activities that they performed during the previous day. The responses are then standardized for analysis purposes. For example, "eating sandwich" and "drinking juice" would both be considered as "eating."
Care Work Wage Parity
A second policy relating to care work is the push for higher wages in the sphere of paid care work. Advocates of this policy believe that individuals who respect and fulfill norms of care will be seen as losers in the competitive economic game, if wages are not increased. Due to this stigma, some economists argue that there may be a gradual erosion of the supply of unpaid care services in the system. Therefore, in order to encourage care work, these proponents advocate for higher wages for care work. However, not all feminist economists believe that higher wages would be appropriate for care work. For example, those who ascribe to the commoditization of emotion framework argue that higher wages may push out true caring emotions in care workers.Care Work and Gender
A third policy debate surrounding care work involves the feminization of care work and focuses on an attempt to make care work more gender neutral, or at least, less disproportionately burdensome to women. One model set forth to address these disparities is the ‘‘universal-breadwinner model’’ which aims at achieving equity through women’s employment and parity with men. The ‘‘caregiver- parity model’’ promotes increased support for informal care work and on forms of employment for women, such as part-time employment, that would increase their time available to provide domestic care work. The first model shifts care and reproductive work to the market and the state, whereas the second keeps care work within the household with support from public funds. Yet both models, to an extent, lift the burden of care work off of women and transfer it either toward the state or toward men.Care Work and Gender Analysis in Economic Policy
Care work, in that it is disproportionally done by women and is also often unpaid, highlights the importance of the larger issue of considering gender in economic policy. As a result, many economists argue that gender analysis should be an essential part in the consideration of any economic policyCare Work and Economic Policy across the World
Care work is a universal force, but it is manifested differently across the world due to differences in a number of factors including the availability of domestic service, the extent of the informal economyInformal economy
The informal sector or informal economy as defined by governments, scholars, banks, etc. is the part of an economy that is not taxed, monitored by any form of government, or included in any gross national product , unlike the formal economy....
, and international migration
International migration
International migration occurs when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum length of time. Migration occurs for many reasons. Many people leave their home countries in order to look for economic opportunities in another country. Others migrate to be with family...
. For this reason, economists argue that there are differences between Northern and Southern countries that would influence the effectiveness of certain policies in the South. Public policies suggested for these regions include increased availability of day care centers, greater access to schools, greater access to health care, improved public transportation, increased access to telephones and more.
The Care Penalty
The Care Penalty is the term for the sacrifices one makes when performing care work. Nancy FolbreNancy Folbre
Nancy Folbre is a feminist economist who focuses on economics and the family, non-market work and the economics of care.She is currently an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst....
describes the term care penalty in depth in her book The Invisible Heart. Care penalties can refer to an array of sacrifices, whether it’s a loss of personal time, money, or experiences missed out on while providing care. The care work in question can be provided to children, animals, the elderly, the sick, the mentally challenged, the learning incapable, and other’s of like disability. Providing care work limits a person’s ability to compete with those who don’t have to provide such care. For example, say a single woman with the responsibility of a child is in the cards for a job promotion, but so is a single, childless woman. There is a high chance the company will take this into account and give the job to the woman who isn’t tied down to a child, because she likely has far more time to devote to the position.
Folbre points out that the concept of the care penalty leads to distributional struggles extremely relevant to gender role
Gender role
Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture, which differ widely between cultures and over time...
s (see 5.3). In situations like the Good Parent’s Dilemma, this is made known. When two people choose to have a child, in most cases, one parent is forced to sacrifice far more than the other, so that the other can work and provide for the family. A vast majority of the time, the parent that ends up staying home and caring for the children is the mother. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report of 2005, there were only 143,000 homes run by stay-at-home dads, compared to 5.6 million homes run by stay-at-home moms, meaning that roughly 5,457,000 more woman are paying care penalties than men. When women make this sacrifice, it not only affects them in the moment, but it affects them even after the child is capable of being independent. By taking time off from their careers, these women are at a disadvantage in the work force for years to come.
Parenthood is seemingly the type of care work that evokes the most significant, and most common, care penalty. Since the mere cost in dollars of raising a child increases constantly, the sacrifices one has to make to raise children are increasing at the same rate. The amount of money parents give up to their children is only money they are taking away from themselves; this is an extreme care penalty. Separate from the issue of money, children tend to cause parents to make many other sacrifices. Being responsible for a child can dictate a person’s decisions on where to live, what to do in their free time, and what jobs to take. There are opportunities that are necessary to turn down when one is held accountable for another person’s well being, which is the perfect definition of the care penalty.
The care penalty is commonly a necessary evil. If someone is in need of supervision, there are not many options to give him or her the care they require. If a person didn’t want to or for some reason could not care for this person on their own, the only other course of action would be to pay someone else to provide them with the care they need. This is sometimes impossible, since professional care can be extremely costly and can seem inefficient. With professional care there also comes moral issues; it’s likely that a person wouldn’t trust a stranger to care for someone they love, and would find more peace of mind in taking on the responsibility themselves. For this reason, some victims of the care penalty have actually chosen the position, though they are aware of the sacrifices that come with it.
Many benefits arise when parents raise successful children. Not only do the children themselves benefit, but employers benefit from new, productive employees. Also, the elderly benefit from the Social Security taxes paid by the younger generations. Parents benefit because of reciprocity, with the child in the care-giving role and the parents in the care-receiving role. These positive externalities make it hard for those who provide the care services to charge a price that would reflect the true value of their services. Thus, the care penalty exists to this day.