Ashura9
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 21, 2012
- 740
- 485
Save Women’s Time, Unleash Their Power
The more than 1 billion people without energy spend a significant portion of theirtime collecting wood and water for the basics of life: heating and cleaning their homes and cooking their food. Almost invariably, that grueling and time-consuming labor is done by women and girls. Globally, women spend an average of 4.5 hours doing unpaid work every day, compared to an average of about 2 hours per day for men.
This global average obscures the reality of many women’s lives, which can consist of six or seven or more hours of unpaid work every day. When Melinda visited Tanzania a couple of years ago, she stayed with Anna and Sanare and their six children. Anna’s day started at 5 a.m., when she lit the fire for making breakfast. After they cleaned up, they fetched water. Then it was time to build the fire again for lunch. After that they went into the forest to chop wood. Then they went for more water, milked the goats, made dinner, and washed up in the moonlight. Anna’s exhausting day is typical in many parts of the world.
This heavy and unequal burden is unfair. It’s also a serious obstacle to progress, because women are so busy meeting basic needs that they can’t invest in the future by doing paid work, going to school, or visiting the doctor regularly.
One solution is to invest in cheap, clean energy so that unpaid work doesn’t take so many hours. But reducing the time required to do household tasks isn’t enough. No matter how efficient we make housework, we won’t free up women’s time until we all recognize that their time is just as valuable as men’s. There’s not a single country in the world where men do as much unpaid work as women, so everyone has plenty of room for improvement on this score.
The division of work depends on cultural norms, and we call them norms because they seem normal -- so normal that many of us don’t notice the assumptions we’re making about how women and men are “supposed to” spend their time. We’d love to play a role in inspiring young people to help shift those norms.
Energy and time are important issues, but there are many others. What can you do to improve the world? What superpower do you wish you had? Join the discussion by sharing your [HASHTAG]#superpowerforgood[/HASHTAG] and read our 2016 Annual Letter
Source Melinda and Bill notes
The more than 1 billion people without energy spend a significant portion of theirtime collecting wood and water for the basics of life: heating and cleaning their homes and cooking their food. Almost invariably, that grueling and time-consuming labor is done by women and girls. Globally, women spend an average of 4.5 hours doing unpaid work every day, compared to an average of about 2 hours per day for men.
This global average obscures the reality of many women’s lives, which can consist of six or seven or more hours of unpaid work every day. When Melinda visited Tanzania a couple of years ago, she stayed with Anna and Sanare and their six children. Anna’s day started at 5 a.m., when she lit the fire for making breakfast. After they cleaned up, they fetched water. Then it was time to build the fire again for lunch. After that they went into the forest to chop wood. Then they went for more water, milked the goats, made dinner, and washed up in the moonlight. Anna’s exhausting day is typical in many parts of the world.
This heavy and unequal burden is unfair. It’s also a serious obstacle to progress, because women are so busy meeting basic needs that they can’t invest in the future by doing paid work, going to school, or visiting the doctor regularly.
One solution is to invest in cheap, clean energy so that unpaid work doesn’t take so many hours. But reducing the time required to do household tasks isn’t enough. No matter how efficient we make housework, we won’t free up women’s time until we all recognize that their time is just as valuable as men’s. There’s not a single country in the world where men do as much unpaid work as women, so everyone has plenty of room for improvement on this score.
The division of work depends on cultural norms, and we call them norms because they seem normal -- so normal that many of us don’t notice the assumptions we’re making about how women and men are “supposed to” spend their time. We’d love to play a role in inspiring young people to help shift those norms.
Energy and time are important issues, but there are many others. What can you do to improve the world? What superpower do you wish you had? Join the discussion by sharing your [HASHTAG]#superpowerforgood[/HASHTAG] and read our 2016 Annual Letter
Source Melinda and Bill notes
