Who Cares? The Gendered Burden of Unpaid Care Work

Aina Salleh begins with an ordinary question: why do cooking, cleaning, caring for children and older people, and coordinating family life disappear so easily from economic and policy debate? These tasks do not cease to create value because they are unpaid. The paid economy can operate precisely because someone in a private space absorbs the cost of renewing labor and sustaining life, and that someone is disproportionately a woman.

The talk replaces the cultural claim that women are simply better caregivers with an account of institutional design. Family expectations, unavailable childcare, working-time regimes, and social protection determine who has time to earn, rest, and participate in public life. Once care is framed as a natural expression of love, refusal or a request for compensation can be condemned as selfish, and women’s economic dependence can be repackaged as personal choice.

This short public talk does not provide a complete fiscal model or comparative account. Its value lies in a clear causal line: recognizing unpaid care is only a first step. Policy must also reduce avoidable drudgery, redistribute responsibility through public services, and make men, employers, and states carry a material share. Care is not a private problem women should manage more efficiently; it is a political structure that determines who has time and freedom.