Women Are Economically Active In a Myriad of Ways Outside Formal Employment.  Discuss With Reference To Northern Ireland.

Research into the altruistic role that women play in society has been referred to as ‘compulsory altruism’ and suggests that women have little choice in taking on the role of carer, rather it is seen as ‘part of traditional gender-role expectations surrounding women’s obligation and duty within the family’.  Kathleen Lynch and Eithne McLaughlin refer to this as ‘love labour’ and believe that to improve the quality of women’s lives there must be ‘higher levels of statutory support to households at lifecycle points where levels of domestic and personal care are high’.  This underlines the lack of support that women receive from formal bodies in their everyday lives.  In formal paid employment, employees rights are protected by numerous pieces of legislation and organisations such as trade unions, but in the home, because a woman receives no financial gain for her employment she also receives no protection.

Women’s work in the home provides little job satisfaction.  Research carried out by Madeline Leonard in a West Belfast housing estate found that women’s informal work was less visible than men’s.  Men tended to carry out jobs such as painting and decorating which had lasting visibility, while women’s tasks such as caring for children or cooking and cleaning had ‘extremely short-term visibility’.   Society as a whole demeans a woman’s domestic role and even in the twenty first century regards a woman who is not engaged in formal employment as ‘only a housewife’.

Homeworking is another area in which women are economically active but largely remain unrecognised.  Homeworkers tend to be statistically hidden in terms of employment rates, they are isolated and unrepresented and are mainly women.  Although the work is generally low paid and exploitative it is advantageous to many women in that they do not require childcare and allows them to combine paid employment with domestic responsibilities.  Home working also has advantages for employers as not only can they pay extremely low wages but they are also absolved from many responsibilities, such as health and safety regulations and costs such as heating and lighting which the employee becomes responsible for.  Most homeworkers do not receive an hourly wage but are ‘paid at piecework rates’.  Not only does this method of payment keep wages low but it also pressurises the homeworker to produce more, so becoming ‘a willing accomplice to his or her exploitation’.  Therefore for many women homeworking is not a flexible way of earning money in their spare time but a demanding taskmaster which leaves them little time for domestic duties.

Another more informal type of homeworking is knitting or dressmaking ‘to fulfil their families internal needs’ or to give to friends and neighbours, thereby improving their economic situations and also strengthening relationships between households.  Sometimes items may be sold at a small profit but this hardly covers the cost of materials never mind labour.  Research by Madeline Leonard shows that most home made clothing was directed at pre-teenage children and was a useful way of ‘fulfilling social obligations attached to birthdays and Christmas’.

Lastly I will look at informal employment, working while collecting benefits, or ‘doing the double’ as it is known in Northern Ireland.  Many women find that it is not economically viable to work in formal employment.  This may be due to two main factors; their husbands are unemployed and receiving Income Support or they are single parents.  The benefits system in Britain is organised in such a way that women in formal employment have their family’s benefits reduced or removed.  ‘Welfare benefits legislation acts as a disincentive against women entering the formal labour market and encourages them to seek ‘off the books’ employment’.  As the majority of women work in low paid, part time jobs it is not economically beneficial to engage in formal employment, therefore women tend to become forced into informal work.

Like homeworking, informal work is low paid and exploitative.  Research carried out by Madeline Leonard with women in the contract cleaning industry found that on average they were paid 53 per cent of the average formal wage.  Added to this is the fact that women in this type of employment receive no holiday pay, no sick pay and are unable to make contributions to a future pension.  The jobs that they do tend to be low status, menial work to which employers find difficulty in recruiting staff.  The mix of informal and formal workers allow employers to make the practice appear legal.

Though conditions and pay are generally very poor research into employee motivations found that ‘renumeration was the wage labourer’s single, most important concern’.  Dire financial circumstances force women to look for employment within the informal labour market.

Due to the narrow definition of work within our society, women’s economic contribution is largely ignored.  Also in the case of informal employment, due to the benefits system, women are forced into concealing their economic contributions.  Until women’s work is financially recognised by the provision of realistic payments which would allow women to choose whether to stay at home to care for children or sick or elderly relatives or to be financially able to pay for someone else to carry out this duty, a women’s traditional role will be undervalued and regarded as low status.

The provision of childcare and domestic support is also needed to enable women to compete equally with men in the job market.  This would benefit both men and women as if the wife of an unemployed man was able to find full time well paid employment the effects of his job loss would be greatly diminished.  In today’s society families do not need the traditional male bread winner, but they do need at least one bread winner who is able to earn a living wage either in or outside the home.

Allen, Sheila. Wolkowitz, Carol. ‘Homeworking and the Control of Women’s Work’. Offprint No.16760.

Ed. Byrne, Anne. Leonard, Madeline. Women and Irish Society. Dublin: Beyond the Pale Publications,1997.

Leonard, Madeline. ‘The Modern Cinderellas: Women and the Contract Cleaning Industry in Belfast’. Offprint No.29544.

Leonard, Madeline. ‘Women and Informal Economic Activity in Belfast. Offprint No.36287.

Leonard, Madeline. Informal Economic Activity in Belfast. Hants: Avebury,1994.

Lynch, Kathleen. McLaughlin, Eithne. ‘Caring Labour and Love Labour’. Offprint No.29849.