Women continue to be marginalised, exploited – study

Marginalised and exploited, women continue to endure “shockingly entrenched” global inequality as researchers revealed that the 22 richest men in the world have more wealth than all women in Africa.

In the study conducted by global poverty alleviation non-profit organisation Oxfam, women and girls are among those who benefit the least from today’s economic system.

This despite women spending at least 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work, cooking, cleaning and caring for children and the elderly every day.

According to the Oxfam survey report titled Time To Care, women do more than three-quarters of all unpaid care work, often having to work reduced hours or drop out of the workforce because of their care workload.

Researchers lament that across the globe, 42% of women of working age cannot get jobs because they are responsible for all the caregiving, compared to just 6% of men.

Women also make up two-thirds of the paid “care workforce” such as nursery workers, domestic workers and care assistants but are often poorly paid, provided scant benefits and work irregular hours which can take a physical and emotional toll.

The report, released ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, found that unpaid care work was the “hidden engine” that keeps the wheels of economies, businesses and societies moving.

“It is driven by women who often have little time to get an education, earn a decent living or have a say in how our societies are run, and who are therefore trapped at the bottom of the economy,” said Amitabh Behar, who is representing Oxfam at the gathering.

According to the Oxfam report, the world’s 2,153 billionaires own more than 4.6 billion people, or 60% of the world population, and that increasing tax on their wealth by just 0.5% over the next decade could provide investment to create 117 million jobs in sectors such as care of the elderly, childcare, education and health.

Basani Baloyi, the organisation’s inequality programme head, told a panel discussion in Johannesburg yesterday that women and girls were also affected most by austerity measures.

“When government cuts budgets, they are forced to fill in the gap and do more unpaid and underpaid care work,” she said.

Baloyi said movements such as the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union, Johannesburg Informal Traders Association as well as United Domestic Workers of South Africa, which she said they have partnered with, were making the women’s voices heard and making the right noises.

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