Podcast Summary: The Day the Women Went on Strike: Visible Women Podcast by Caroline Criado Perez

Recommendation

Unpaid labor – usually care work, performed by women – could account for between 50% and 80% of global GDP. Yet the contribution and burden of this labor remains largely ignored by economists, policy-makers and society at large. In this episode of Visible Women, host Caroline Criado Perez discusses the economics of care work with professor Nancy Folbre, government worker Khara Jabola-Carolus, and Guðrún Hallgrímsdóttir and Lilja Ólafsdóttir, organizers of Iceland’s historic “Women’s Day Off.” What, Perez asks, will it take to make care work better recognized and valued? Might COVID-19 be an impetus for change?

Take-Aways

• In October 1975, some 90% of Icelandic women participated in an historic “Women’s Day Off.”
• Neoclassical economic theory – still the dominant approach today – does not view care work as part of economic activity.
• COVID-19 brought the importance of care work back to the fore; some have used this renewed awareness to push for change.

Summary

In October 1975, some 90% of Icelandic women participated in an historic “Women’s Day Off.”

The idea for the strike came from a conference for low-paid female union members, organized by Iceland’s radical feminist Redstockings movement. On the proposed “holiday,” a vast majority of Iceland’s women stopped performing both paid and unpaid labor. One in five women also attended a protest in Reykjavík’s main square.

“There were no kindergartens open, there were no wives at home, so the fathers had to take the kids with them to work.” (Women’s Day Off co-organizer Lilja Ólafsdóttir)

Normal life in Iceland came to a standstill. With schools closed and their wives out protesting, fathers were forced to take their children to work. Switchboards had no operators to connect phone calls. Supermarkets purportedly ran out of sausages as men desperately sought out simple dinner solutions. The strike proved successful in making the vital nature of women’s unpaid care work visible. Five years after the Day Off, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir become Iceland’s – and the world’s – first elected female president. Today, Iceland regularly ranks as “the best place to be a woman” by the World Economic Forum.

Neoclassical economic theory – still the dominant approach today – does not view care work as part of economic activity.

In the mid-1800s, in the UK, physician William Farr, who oversaw the nation’s census, listed “housewife” as an occupation. By the end of that century, however, economic thought had shifted. Neoclassical economic theory, which still holds sway today, treats women who do not work outside the home as “dependents” rather than contributors to a country’s economy. That’s because this theory elevates market activity above all else: Any work that takes place in non-market spaces is, by definition, “non-economic.”

“People are a really important economic resource. And by taking care of them, you’re contributing to our collective capabilities in a way that should be recognized and valued.” (economics professor Nancy Folbre)

Modern focus on GDP as the prime – practically sole – measure of economic health follows this logic. But GDP is limited in its ability to reflect a nation and its people’s economic well-being. An oil spill can increase a nation’s GDP because of the costs associated with cleanup. Meanwhile, caring for children, cleaning and maintaining the home, and taking care of ill family members do not register. Even those nations that track “time-use data,” which measures time spent on unpaid labor, treat this information as an economic footnote – distinct from, and far less important than, measures like GDP.

COVID-19 brought the importance of care work back to the fore; some have used this renewed awareness to push for change.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the issue of care work into sharp focus once more. Suddenly, the question of who was doing all the cooking and cleaning and child-tending was mainstream news. Might this new awareness lead to some sort of fundamental reassessment of the value of women’s long-overlooked, unpaid labor?

“Think back to the spring of 2020. Just like in Iceland in 1975, suddenly people’s kids were no longer neatly tucked away out of sight.” (Caroline Criado Perez)

In Hawaii, the sudden loss of tourist dollars during the pandemic was nothing short of devastating. At the same time, however, COVID-19 opened up new possibilities for the state’s women – historically, an economically disadvantaged group. For instance, federally funded child care became available to all, thanks to a pause in means-testing.

The Hawai’i State Commission on the Status of Women seized on the crisis as an opportunity, drafting and publishing a “feminist economic recovery plan” in April 2020. Rather than focusing on measures like GDP, the plan prioritized “how women were doing on the ground.” It recommended changes that would allow more women to not just “survive” economically, but thrive – including paid family leave and government-subsidized preschool. A number of local governments ultimately voted to adopt the group’s plan.

About the Podcast

Best-selling author and activist Caroline Criado Perez is the host of the Visible Women podcast, which builds on the ground-breaking research in her award-winning book, Invisible Women. Nancy Folbre is professor emerita of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Khara Jabola-Carolus is executive director of the Hawai’i State Commission on the Status of Women. Guðrún Hallgrímsdóttir and Lilja Ólafsdóttir helped organize Iceland’s historic “Women’s Day Off.”