Women's Month
The Work Nobody Pays For - Fact 4
THE WOMAN PROJECT — Woman Fact 4
She runs an entire household worth over $140,000 a year in unpaid labor. Nobody hands her a paycheck. She never once asked for one. You know you are this woman.
READ IT
Someone once asked me, "So, do you work, or are you just at home?" I smiled, because I already knew what she didn't.
Researchers using U.S. wage data estimate a mother's unpaid work at home, cooking, cleaning, caring, holding an entire household together, would be worth well over $140,000 a year if it were ever paid. Globally, the United Nations estimates unpaid care work contributes up to 39% of a country's entire economy. That's not a small favor squeezed into spare time. That's an entire, invisible economy, carried quietly, by women, every single day.
Shout that out loud for a second: a woman can run something worth six figures, without a title, without a salary, without anyone ever calling it a job, and still show up the next morning and do it again, out of love. That isn't small. That's extraordinary, and it deserves to be said like it is.
SAY IT
Practice this phrase out loud today: "This is work, and it's worth more than anyone ever told me."
Say it like you mean it, because you do.
THINK IT
If you had to put a real number on everything you do in a day, paid or not, what would it actually be worth? Let yourself be honest, and generous, with the answer.
CHALLENGE IT
Today, name one piece of unpaid work you do, out loud, to someone, and call it exactly what it is: work, and valuable work at that.
