Household work would make up 30-50% of GDP—if it were included

May 9, 2021

In honor of Mother’s day, we wanted to highlight just how much value mothers bring to a society and an economy. We invite you to discover some ways to help value our moms and the caring work they do on a daily basis.

“If you can itemize the economic value of raising children, then you can say, ‘This is really worthwhile stuff.’ The main thing is to start.Let’s start. Let’s start making all that invisible caregiving work easier to see, and easier to support. This Mother’s Day, let’s start really valuing mothers.”- Dr.Riane Eisler

“If we were to include unpaid caregiving and household work in our economy, GDP would grow by a whopping 30-50%. The US currently recognizes destructive activities such as weapons production and building prisons as boosts to the economy. If we factor the work of caring for human beings and our planet into the economy, we can literally make care count, and make huge gains in shifting our paradigm from a system of domination toward one of partnership.” – Kate O’Rourke 

“Care work is still primarily done by women for free in families and for poverty wages in the market. Care work produces public goods, and should be supported in families by policies such as paid parental leave and caregiver tax credits. As long as women and the “feminine” such as caring and caregiving are devalued, we cannot realistically expect more caring economic policies. Young people have a major role to play in creating a caring economics.”-Dr.Riane Eisler

“Poverty should NOT be the reward for motherhood. Even in the rich US, women over the age of 65 are twice as likely to be poor as men over 65. The reason is not only wage discrimination; it’s that most of these women are, or were, full or part-time caregivers. And poverty is their reward.”- Dr.Riane Eisler

“Flowers, brunches and cards are fine, but moms should receive something they really need: social support and workplace policies that better enable them to earn real paychecks, while caring for their families. GDP may fail to value the immense care work carried out by moms, but it’s time we all succeed in valuing it. If we don’t measure the value of caregiving work, we won’t value it. And if we don’t value it, society certainly won’t support it.”- Dr. Riane Eisler 

“When mothers have authority, society is held together by sharing and caring.We can learn a great deal from whales. It is the same lesson we can learn from our close genetic relatives, the bonobo apes of the Congo. Here mothers have a great deal of authority, there is very little violence, and their society is held together by sharing and caring rather than by fear and force.”- Dr.Riane Eisler

“Should Mother’s Day be about nice words and pretty flowers? Or should it be about giving the moms who care for us, and the essential work they do, real worth? Only when caregiving is valued can we realistically expect more caring social policies. Let’s take a good look at our values and economic policies this Mother’s Day, and see to it that our policy-makers do the same. This is the real gift we should give mothers–and fathers and children–this Mother’s Day.”- Dr.Riane Eisler

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See also: Celebrate Mother’s Day with Riane Eisler & Friends

 

 

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