Uncovering the Burden of Unpaid Care: A Quantitative Study of Differently Abled Women

Abstract

Unpaid domestic care work is mostly performed by women all over the word, but it is mostly unseen, ignored and undervalued. The Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 also emphasizes on the value of unpaid domestic and care work performed by women. It is an important element of the workforce. Differently abled women are also performing unpaid domestic care work, but it is invisible. The aim of this study is to measure the time spent by differently abled women on unpaid domestic care work. Also to find the economic value perceived by the differently abled women while spending time on unpaid domestic care work and to find the feeling status of differently abled women while spending time on unpaid domestic care work. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample size for this study. This method makes sure that the sample includes differently abled women who are engaged in unpaid care work in Northern Areas and twin cities of Pakistan. Data collection was carried out through face-to-face interviews using the structured questionnaire. The findings shows that differently abled women are mostly spending their time on domestic work and in childcare activities which includes rearing, moral and social training etc. They are doing much work than our expectations, but their work is unseen and undervalued. The study recommends the sharing of household responsibilities and valuing unpaid domestic care work.

 Keywords: Unpaid Domestic Care Work, Differently Abled Women, Emotional Wellbeing, Perceived Economic Value