(CSF3) Gender Inequality in Unpaid Work

Gender inequality in unpaid work persists. While there has been some progress in bridging the gender gap over the last few decades, recent research indicates that this progress has stalled and, in some cases, even reversed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This session invited papers that critically investigate the realities of gender inequality in unpaid work. We welcomed both theoretical and empirical work that delves into the division of unpaid work within heterosexual and same-sex households, going beyond conventional resource-based explanations. We were particularly interested in submissions that critically engage with research on time use. Overall, the session will provide a forum for scholarly discussion among researchers studying unpaid work within Canadian sociology. Tags: Equality and Inequality, Parenting And Families, Work And Professions

Organizer: Kamila Kolpashnikova, Western University; Chair: Kamila Kolpashnikova, Western University

Presentations

Tara McWhinney, Carleton University

Women's Freedom and Domestic Labour: A Feminist Political Economy Analysis

Domestic labour, defined as the unpaid work done in households to support the daily and generational reproduction of household members, is ubiquitous, necessary, and continual for working-class families. For those in heteronormative nuclear households that depend upon wages, it is most often women who perform much of this work, and do it unpaid (Guppy et al., 2019; Houle et al., 2017), in addition to their typically under-valued paid work, the so-called “double” or “second shift” (Hochschild, 2012). Domestic labour was a hot topic of early 1960s to 1980s socialist feminist scholarship (Barrett, 1980; Benston, 1969/2019; Briskin, 1980; Dalla Costa and James, 1975; Morton, 1970/1980, Seccombe, 1980), and since these domestic labour debates several feminist political economists have conducted interviews with women in Canada about their domestic labour conditions (Bezanson, 2006; B. Fox, 2001, 2006; Luxton, 1980, 1981, 1983, 2006b; Luxton and Corman, 2007, 2001/2007; Neysmith et al., 2012), but this empirical research seemed to drop off in the last decade. This research project seeks to reanimate this topic by exploring women’s often-invisible domestic labour and its conditions in 2020. My research asks, what freedom do working-class women in Ontario have in organizing and supporting of their domestic labour, given a context of austerity politics? Can they imagine radically new ways of organizing and supporting this labour? I take up the case of working-class women with children in Ontarios increasingly conservative policy climate as an apt and timely case study. However, this research does not begin and end with an examination of the conditions of domestic labour within households. In my analysis I consider the relationship between the organization of women’s domestic labour and the conditions of other forms of social reproduction and productive labour across state, market, and community relations. I argue that feminist political economists need to consider the ways in which domestic labour is distinct from, and conditioned by, other forms of social reproduction. I do so for two reasons. First, domestic labour makes up a significant portion of social reproduction labour, and women’s emancipation is hampered by the inequitable divisions of labour that assign domestic labour to women, especially for those with children. Second, domestic labour conditions have become more challenging. The intensification of austerity and neoliberal policy approaches have downloaded more of the responsibility for social reproduction onto households (Bezanson and Luxton 2006; Braedley and Luxton, 2010). To advocate for women’s emancipation, the problem of domestic labour and the experiences of women performing domestic labour need to be directly addressed in theory, research and advocacy efforts. One hundred and twenty-four women participated in a participatory online mapping survey, with 25 respondents further engaging in an online discussion forum and 11 respondents participating in focus groups. These three overlapping methods aimed to bring women together to discuss housework and childcare within households and to debate ways to improve these unpaid labour conditions. The data analysis shows that domestic labour continues to be a central aspect of women’s oppression under capitalism. The findings demonstrate how in 2020, even before the pandemic shutdowns, gendered divisions of domestic labour persisted, as most women who participated in this study were the main providers of housework within their households. These findings are consistent with time-use domestic labour research showing that women take on a larger share of housework labours than men. But what the time-use survey research has not captured, and which women in this study made clear, is that that women often experience domestic labour as a burden and a time issue. Further, many women who participated either cannot imagine changing these oppressive conditions or focus on changes to household and gender relations that miss or ignore the wider political economy that shapes unpaid labours. However, when prompted to consider a wider lens, women in the focus groups discussed inequities and discrimination in the labour force and the need for social policy change. Although their political claims did not move beyond existing policy discourse, this research suggests that domestic labour can potentially be a unifying topic for diverse working-class women, and a promising basis for political action.

Natalie Adamyk, University of Toronto

The Women and Men Behind Burning Man: Emotion Management and the Limitations of Gender Equality in Lakes of Fire as a Decommodified Cultural Field

Burning Man, an art-centered week-long camping event that takes place annually in Black Rock City, Nevada, is attended by tens of thousands each year. Along with its smaller counterpart “burns” that can be found throughout the rest of U.S. and the world, it constitutes a unique and vibrant cultural event. Beginning in 1986 when the original Burning Man was held by artists Larry Harvey, John Law and Jerry James on a San Francisco beach, the burner community has been notable for its commitment to the creation and maintenance of a decommodified, self-perpetuating community, which relies on gifting rather than a monetary economic system. Because of these values, burns require the extensive efforts of participants who contribute their time and unpaid labour in capacities such as building, creating art, running and/or volunteering with theme camps. More senior and/or higher-ranking members may sit on boards and committees that determine important functions such as choosing artists to receive art grants, and planning programming around efforts such as racial and LGBTQ+ inclusivity and increased awareness and practice of consent. At the heart of burns are the Ten Principles all burners are expected to follow: radical inclusion, gifting, de-commodification, radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, communal effort, civic responsibility, leaving no trace, participation, and immediacy. This presentation explores emotion management done by participants or “burners” at the regional Burning Man event Lakes of Fire in Montague, MI. As a yearly week-long camping and art-centered decommodified community taking place for a week in late June, members in the Lakes community requires adherence to the Ten Burner Principles, which enshrine the importance of values such as communal effort and personal immediacy. Building on existing Critical Events literature, this paper explores how burners utilize emotion management to create and sustain Lakes as a vibrant socio-cultural field. Through 40 interviews with men and women burners, I focus on participants’ emotion management to reveal the limitations of Lakes as a gender egalitarian space. While both men and women describe engaging in emotion management as camp leads, art organizers and rangers, women were more likely to expend greater emotional energy in nurturing and interpersonal roles, while men more frequently describe the importance of allowing women and other marginalized groups greater say in major policy and decision making. Men also often viewed themselves in supportive or otherwise complementary roles. This apparently egalitarian form of emotional labour, which requires men to “lean out” and re-centre women, tends to displace more acute emotion management onto women, particularly those centered around teaching newer burners the importance of both the Twelve Principles and practices around sexual consent. This research points out both the importance of emotion management in the continued maintenance and success of non-monetized cultural fields, and the gendered organization and often ensuing inequality in emotional division of labour.

Haiyan Zhou, University of Toronto； Shanghai University

Understanding Intergenerational Co-Parenting Shifts: A Qualitative Inquiry into the Parenting Division of Working Mothers and Grandmothers in Urban China

Grandmothers childcare is common in East Asia and widespread in both urban and rural China. Despite considerable research devoted to the study of Chinese intergenerational co-parenting, none has focused systematically on the division and roles of bilateral grandmothers in co-parenting. Drawing on data from 46 married, child-rearing women (born 1950-1999), this paper contributes in-depth knowledge about collaboration and division in intergenerational co-parenting along the bilateral family lines (paternal and maternal grandmothers). Additionally, it explores variations in intergenerational co-parenting among women from different generations using a comparative perspective. Based on economic, political and fertility policy differences during their birth and upbringing, we categorized all interviewees into four generations: the Builder Generation (born1950-1964,10 participants); the Transitioner Generation (born1965-1979,11 participants); the Early-Reform Generation (born1980-1989,13 participants); and the Late-Reform Generation (born1990-1999,12 participants). We conduct this study based on the Mosaic Familism Theory. As a localized theory of Chinese families, the Mosaic Familism Theory employs an intersectional perspective of generations and gender, emphasizing the resilience and reshaping of intergenerational relations in post-reform China. It describes an emerging bilateral family mode featured by both traditional norms and modern practices focusing on individuals’ daily life logic, where parents and adult children are interdependent through financial assistance, emotional and care support to withstand the rising living costs, care demand and uncertainties in the era of marketization and globalization. The authors find different generational working mothers all experienced co-parenting with grandmothers for their underage children but with notable differences. Firstly, under varied socioeconomic structures and reproductive support systems, each generation developed era-specific parenting patterns. The builder generation devoted themselves to socialist construction and sacrificed their private family for the country. They trusted the public childcare and put children in daycare from early months—grandmothers childcare just for special occasions, like postpartum period and emergencies. The transitioner generation encountered market reform during their child-rearing period. They suffered the large-scale SOEs’ layoffs and were encouraged to return home. They emphasized mothers’ responsibilities with low expectations for intergenerational co-parenting, being full-time mothers for years through layoffs, unpaid leave and sick leave. In the post-reform era, childcare became marketized and privatized. The early-reform generation suffered serious parenting-work conflicts and relied on one grandmother for childcare. Conversely, the late-reform generation got bilateral grandmothers’ support in parenting owning lower fertility rates. Secondly, different generations experienced varying task divisions and roles in intergenerational co-parenting. In the builder generation, grandmothers were a supplement to mothers, providing brief care only during special occasions. In the transitioner generation, grandmothers served as assistants in housework. But in post-reform, collaboration and division became intricate and closely knit. In the early-reform generation, grandmothers became indispensable supporters in daily care and physical tasks, allowing mothers to focus on emotional, leisure and academic support within their limited family time. In the late-reform generation, mothers regarded grandmothers as obedient partners, with younger mothers designing parenting rules while grandmothers executed tasks involving every aspect of children’s lives. Thirdly, since China’s 1949 revolution, maternal grandmothers increasingly engage in intergenerational parenting, showing a trend of both maternal and paternal childcare coexisting. In the former two generations, mothers briefly collaborated with one grandmother based on parenting convenience and feasibility. Early-reform mothers preferred co-parenting with maternal grandmothers due to deeper emotional bonds and also to avoid conflicts with mothers-in-law. Late-reform mothers simultaneously benefited from multifaceted assistance, including care, time and financial support from the bilateral grandmothers. These findings suggest that each generation of women has developed distinct parenting patterns and intergenerational co-parenting methods within the diverse contexts of societal-economic and family policies. Furthermore, intergenerational relationships have become increasingly close, even giving rise to an emerging bilateral family model.

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Non-presenting authors: Yingchun Ji, Shanghi University; Melissa Milkie, University of Toronto

Parveen Nangia, Laurentian University; Lima Nizami, Laurentian University

Unpaid Caregiving by Immigrants in Canada

Although important, the work carried out by informal caregivers is often overlooked or characterized as “invisible”. Unpaid caregiving is strenuous for immigrants who have limited resources and networks to depend upon and struggle to settle down in a new country. This study examines the characteristics of immigrants who provide care to their loved ones (family members and friends) suffering from a long-term health condition, a disability or aging-related problems, the type of care provided, time spent in providing such unpaid care, additional sources used for support, and the effect of caregiving on family life and career of care providers. It also attempts to predict the likelihood of a person providing such care from one’s socio-demographic traits. Data for this study are derived from the General Social Survey (GSS), 2018 (Canada): Cycle 32, Caregiving and Care Receiving. The Survey was conducted in 2018 (April-December) and collected data from 20,258 Canadians, including 3,525 landed immigrants. Researchers obtaineddata from the Public Use Microdata File (PUMF). Preliminary results of the study show that, in general, caregiving was seen more as a rewarding experience by the immigrants than a stressful experience even though it affected their physical and emotional health, and family and social life. For performing their caregiving duties, largely they received support from their families and to a small extent from the government. The analysis also shows that older immigrants, married or previously married, and those with higher family incomes were more likely to provide unpaid care to their family members and friends.