Invisible Work Invisible Workers: the Sub-Economies of Unpaid Work and Paid Work Action Research on Women’s Unpaid Labour.

Abstract

The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights in her report to the 68th Session of the General Assembly in 2013 termed the unequal burden of unpaid and care work borne by women as a major human rights issue as it restricts women, especially poor women, from enjoying a whole gamut of basic rights – the right to health, education and training, public participation and in the labor market to paid, decent work and social security. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), approved at the highest level by heads of States at the UN General Assembly held in New York in September 2015 advocated public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and shared responsibilities within households and families as nationally appropriate (Target 5.4) as a critical way forward in achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls