Without unpaid domestic and care work, the economy would collapse. And yet this huge sector is not included at all in the usual economic analyzes and calculations – something feminist economists have been criticizing for decades.
In this interview, the Freiburg economist and sociologist Uta Meier-Gräwe once again explains why this is so fatal: According to the Federal Statistical Office, women in Germany do around 60 billion hours of unpaid housework. If this were based on the average wage of a housekeeper, cook and educator, that would be around 830 billion euros a year. Meier-Gräwe is by no means calling for this area to be integrated one-to-one into the monetary economy – not every socially necessary work can be sensibly organized in the form of gainful employment. The problem lies in the fact that everything for which no money flows is considered unimportant and is therefore neglected in planning and structures. Meier-Gräwe:
At the moment, the economic story goes like this: First industry and trade have to make a profit, then we can finance social services. This way of thinking is reflected, among other things, in how costs for day-care centers and schools are booked. Not as investments, such as armaments, but as consumer spending. And unlike investments, these expenditures are subject to the debt brake and are therefore subject to financing. If municipalities are stuck, they have no choice but to save there.
However, it is devastating for society and also for the economy if the care sector is not developed in line with needs and with foresight. An interview worth reading. If you would like more details: Meier-Gräwe’s book “Um-Care – How care work revolutionizes the economy”, written together with Ina Praetorius, has just been published (Patmos, 2023, 19 euros).