{"id":16119,"date":"2022-11-07T05:03:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T10:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialimpactmovement.org\/?p=16119"},"modified":"2022-11-15T06:19:23","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T11:19:23","slug":"essential-but-excluded-the-undervaluation-of-caregivers-who-power-our-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialimpactmovement.org\/staging\/essential-but-excluded-the-undervaluation-of-caregivers-who-power-our-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Essential, but excluded: The undervaluation of caregivers who power our economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Image: The National Domestic Workers Alliance<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Essential, but excluded: The Undervaluation of Caregivers who power our Economy\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Caregiving is job-enabling work, yet domestic workers are excluded from labor movements and the fight for equal pay<\/span>.

By Madeline Ley
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While most white women were originally excluded from the U.S. labor force and relegated to the private sphere, many women of color had to work. \u201cThe problem that has no name,\u201d coined by Betty Friedan, during the 1960s was unrelatable to Black women and women of color who worked in domestic service jobs. Women\u2019s labor force participation rose rapidly during the second half of the 20th century, increasing significantly from the\u00a0<\/span>1960s (at nearly 38 percent) through the 1980s, reaching its peak in 1999 at 60 percent<\/a><\/span>. While the rate has declined since, exacerbated by the pandemic, women – regardless of race and ethnicity, education level, marital status, and parental status – participate at higher rates than they did in the 1960s.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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But who played a role in enabling adults, particularly women, to live independent lives and do other work?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Domestic workers, who are overwhelmingly women, women of color, and immigrants, power our economy and do essential care work that sustains the labor force and keeps families alive. However, <\/span>entrenched views of care work as unskilled and as a woman\u2019s responsibility<\/a><\/span>, and racist perceptions of women of color, cause domestic workers to be undervalued, under-compensated, and unseen. 2.2 million domestic workers face higher rates of poverty than other workers, lack labor protections, and face unacceptable working conditions.\u00a0<\/span>W<\/a><\/span>hile progress has remained slow for all working women and gender pay gaps persist,<\/a><\/span>\u00a0basic protections and dignified working conditions for domestic workers have been swept under the rug.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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