Domestic works: Is it women’s work?

Fahmi Ela ।।

This is a gendered world. There are thousand examples we can give where gender discrimination exists. I want to discuss domestic work specifically. Before coming here, I thought that the situation of all countries is the same. After coming to Norway, I heard that man and woman both do domestic work here. I have seen in my country that domestic work is women’s duty, even when a woman works outside! My question is, when a woman is not only a person to live in the house, why should she always have to do household work? In my country, those women who are raising their voice against this, are being called ‘bad women’!

Man is a part of the family, then why do they not want to take part in these activities? Because the simple stereotype is ingrained in mind that these are ‘women’s work’ and by doing these there is a great fear of being ‘feminine’!

Women make up half of the world’s workforce and 48% of the labor forces. The UN claims women do two-thirds of the world’s work and carry 15 times more domestic work than men. But only one percent of the wealth of this world belongs to women and they receive one tenth of the total income! I believe one of the main reasons for gender inequality is the distribution of such discriminatory gendered responsibilities. Domestic work is unpaid and time-consuming. It is not considered productive or economic. So that 11 trillion dollars’ worth of women’s work is lost every year as an invisible contribution to the world economy. Capitalism says that women are also the driving force for the development of society. But did not free them from their domestic work. As a result, a ‘double burden’ was placed on the woman’s neck.

[This article written by Fahmi Ela was previously published in Norwegian language  in a Magazine’s `300 words article’ category in Norway. Feminist Factor publishes this in English.]