Written by:
Debby Paramitasari (Research Officer at Resilience Development Initiative, Bandung); Arif Budi Darmawan (Research Officer at Resilience Development Initiative, Bandung); Indraswari (Senior Lecturer at Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung).
A recent collaborative study between Magdalene and International Labor Union (ILO) (2024) titled “Women work 100 hours per week but still considered unproductive: Magdalene-ILO Care work social experiment” highlighted that women spent excessive hours doing caregiving work and even exceeded their paid work hours. The experiment reveals that caregiving work that comprises performing various tasks to support the needs of others, such as spouses, parents, children, people aged 65 or older, and people with disabilities, is often unpaid because it is regarded as low-skilled or even unskilled. The fact that caregiving work is mainly done by women and the notion that it is women’s “nature” adds to the low appreciation of the work. Further, it also emphasized that women can earn up to IDR 23 million monthly salary for doing around 400 hours of caregiving work if it was a paying job.
Besides its monetization, the study highlighted the multiple burden situations women faced due to caregiving work. Although the study participants affirmed the importance of the work, they often feel overwhelmed in doing so and to balance it with paid work and other activities such as education and social activities. Many women rarely sought support from their husband, or if support was available the result was under their expectation. These situations can lead to time poverty.
Time poverty and its impact on women
A study conducted by As (1987) reported that there are four different types of time to measure time poverty: 1) contracted time is defined as the period of time spent on paid work or education, including related travel, 2) committed time is the time spent for doing unpaid work, such as housework, child care, shopping, or helping others. 3) necessary time is spent on maintaining physiological health, such as eating, sleeping, and hygiene. 4) free/leisure time is the residual time left after subtracting the other three kinds of time from a person's day. From the above types of time, more women than men spend most of their time in committed time and have limited time left for the others.
This fact is in line with a UNDP study which defines time poverty as a condition when an individual does not have sufficient discretionary time to take care of themselves, educate themselves, engage in leisure activities, or in other activities that maintain their wellbeing after they have performed the caregiving work. Time poverty is also considered a gendered issue, whereas more women are more time-poor compared to their male counterparts due to women’s excessive work to perform both the caregiving- and paid-works. At the same time, time poverty leads to inequality that limits women from maximizing their potential. When women are occupied with performing caregiving work, it may influence their education, careers, earnings, and wellbeing. While men are more likely to excel in all of these aspects as they have more time to perform tasks other than the caregiving work.
Time poverty generates various impacts on women. One of them is health. When women are time-poor, they are more likely to become less healthy because they spend less time taking care of their health, such as consuming fast food because it saves more time than cooking their meals, exercising less, and postponing seeking medical care. Another example is that many women quit their jobs when they have children as they are occupied with taking care of the children with minimum or no support from their husband. As a result, the situation slows down or even abandons their career, which makes it impossible for them to catch up with their peers when resuming later. It also influences women’s earning which is lower than men’s or even makes the women financially dependent on their husband.
What can be done to tackle time poverty?
It is important to address women’s time poverty by mainstreaming the 5R framework for Decent Care Work that was promoted through the 2016 UN Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, which includes: 1) Recognizing the caregiving work as a productive activity to reach the needs of others. 2) Reducing the burden women face by involving others in caregiving work. 3) Redistributing the burden of caregiving work to others. 4) Provide Rewards to relevant parties for their contribution to caregiving work. 5) Ensure Representation of women in policy-making and services related to caregiving work.
As caregiving work plays an important role in society, the Government of Indonesia, through the Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, established a road map for the care economy. This is a progressive action to respond in managing caregiving work in Indonesia by recognizing caregiving work as a work which has significant importance as is the case of the paid work. The government has a significant role as a provider to enable caregiving services to be acknowledged and regulated before improvement can be made in the implementation aspects. The focus of the care economy in Indonesia is to provide facilities for caregiving services including but not limited to early childhood education, access to maternal and paternal leave, and social protection to vulnerable groups.
There is still much ongoing homework to be done regarding the implementation of the care economy in Indonesia. In addition to the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection, the Board of the National Development Planning (Bappenas) is currently on the agenda of including the care economy in Indonesia’s short-term and long-term development plan, support from other government institutions at the national and regional levels is needed to ensure the policy and implementation work properly. So do other actors such as NGOs, academia, private sectors, and the community should support the care economy agenda.
