Embedded Files
Helpful prior knowledge and learning objectives
Helpful prior knowledge and learning objectives
Helpful prior learning:
Section 1.1.1 The economy and you, which explains what an economy is and how it is relevant to students’ lives
Section 1.1.2 The embedded economy, which explains the relationship between the economy and society and Earth’s systems
Section 1.3.6 Households, markets, state and commons, which explains four provisioning institutions in the economy and their interconnection
Section 1.3.7 Care in the economy, which explains the importance of care in the economy, the types of care, and why care is undervalued
Section 1.4.4 Caring economies, which explains the five R framework for improving care in societies
Section 2.1.1 The household as a system, which describes households, the basic relationships of household members, and the connection between the household and the rest of the economy.
Section 2.1.3 Functions of households, which explains the various roles of households for human wellbeing and the wider society and economy
Section 2.1.4 Householding skills, which explains the wide range of skills that people need to to run a well-functioning household
Section 2.3.1 Intrahousehold bargaining power, which explains the factors that impact the relative power of household members
Section 2.3.2 Households and gender inequalities, which explains the reinforcing feedback loops associated with women’s unequal care responsibilities
Section 2.3.3 Households and global care chains, which explains the causes and consequences of globally interconnected care work for the host and home countries of migrant care workers
Section S.1 What are systems?, which explains what a system is, the importance of systems boundaries, the difference between open and closed systems and the importance of systems thinking
Section S.2 Systems thinking patterns, which outlines the core components of systems thinking: distinctions (thing/other), systems (part/whole), relationships (action/reaction), and perspectives (point/view)
Learning objectives:
explain why well-functioning households are needed in society
describe actions that household members can take to strengthen care and distribute care and household work more equitably
Before you read the sections in this Subtopic 2.4, take a few minutes to envision the best, well-functioning, resilient household you can imagine. You could consider:
Who lives with you in that amazing household?
How do other household members care for you, to support your health and happiness? How do you care for others to support their health and happiness?
How does this household help you regenerate?
Think about and/or discuss your ideas with a partner or small group.
Figure 1. What does a regenerative household look like, feel like, and do?
(Credit: Made x Made, Noun Project)
Why should we strengthen households?
Why should we strengthen households?
As is discussed in Section 2.1.1, households are systems where individuals have strong care relationships. The primary function of households is to support the survival and well-being of household members.
Households are not isolated. They are embedded in a larger socio-economic system that includes markets, commons, and the state (Figure 2). These institutions can either support or weaken households' ability to provide care (Subtopic 2.2). Strengthening households is essential for improving overall well-being and ensuring that households can fulfil their regenerative functions.
Figure 2. The household in the embedded economy
(Credit: Kate Raworth and Marcia Mihotich CC-BY-SA 4.0)
Household care is the core of the economy and society. Without functioning households, economies and societies would collapse. Households, especially women and girls in households, are often the shock absorbers for the rest of the economy and society. Household members support one another during social, economic, and ecological crises, as we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic and likely in future ecological breakdowns. However, households must be resilient to provide this support effectively.
A systems approach is needed to strengthen households. This approach considers the roles, relationships, and responsibilities of individuals within households as well as the support from other provisioning institutions for household care.
As is discussed in Section 2.2.2, the commons are often already a significant support for households. Because of this, the framework for how commoning supports households is also used here to help us think about how markets and the state can better support households (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Commoning supports households in a number of general ways; how can markets and the state also provide this support?
(Credit: Icons from various artists Noun Project)
Figure 3 shows that markets, commons and the state can support households by:
(supporting) sharing resources: lowers the cost of living and improves household sustainability;
providing goods and services and a safety net: this involves meeting people’s basic needs on an on-going basis, but also providing a safety net to ensure that everyone’s needs are met in times of economic, social or ecological disruption. This often involves redundancy, providing goods and services that are also provided by other provisioning institutions; and universality, or making goods and services available to everyone who needs them;
strengthening social networks: supporting activities and spaces that bring people together, spontaneously or on purpose, improving relationships and building social cohesion and resilience;
improving gender equality: supporting actions and policies to improve gender equality should reduce women’s care and domestic work, freeing time for education, paid work, and social networks, increasing women’s power and shifting social norms that enable men to care too.
How can individuals strengthen their own households?
How can individuals strengthen their own households?
This Subtopic 2.4 will address strategies for supporting household care through the commons, markets, and state. However, we can first outline some individual actions to strengthen and make households more resilient. Individuals can:
actively support other household members: well-functioning, resilient households require mutual support from all household members. Prioritise household care by allocating time and energy for activities like cooking, cleaning, talking, and caring for your own and others’ health and mental wellbeing.
recognise household care and domestic work: make care work visible by having open discussions about household responsibilities and satisfaction with current arrangements. You can also use simple research instruments like time-use diaries, observations or interviews to help understand household relationships (Section 2.3.4).
reduce household domestic work: discuss ways to reduce time spent on household tasks. Find more efficient methods, eliminate unnecessary tasks, or do them less frequently. This strategy may not work everywhere as it probably requires access to technology and external care services and better infrastructure (like local water sources) that may be provided by the state.
redistribute household care and domestic work: improve householding skills (Section 2.1.4) to share household care and domestic work more evenly. This frees up time for overburdened household members and builds household resilience. Learning and using these skills is crucial for young people to become more independent.
Figure 4. Taking time to openly discuss and negotiate household work can strengthen households
(Credit: Antoni Shkraba, Pexels licence)
Figure 5. Learning householding and redistributing domestic work can strengthen households
(Credit: Gabriel Tovar, Unsplash licence)
Activity 2.4.1
Activity 2.4.1
Concept: Regeneration
Skills: Thinking skills (transfer)
Time: 30 minutes
Type: Individual, then pairs or small group
Reflection on individual action to strengthen your household
This section outlined some ways that individuals in households can strengthen the functions of the household (Section 2.1.3), the overall goal of care and resilience.
Identify three steps that you or others in your household could take to strengthen your household.
Discuss those steps with a partner or in a small group. Consider the impact (will it make a difference?) and feasibility (is it possible to do?) of each strategy.
Consider whether you might want to take one or more of those steps as a project (see Subtopic 2.5 Taking Action).
Ideas for longer activities and projects are listed in Subtopic 2.5 Taking Action
Checking for understanding
Checking for understanding
Further exploration
Further exploration
MenCare - international organisation that supports men taking a more equal role in care work. In 2023, the organisation released a comprehensive report on the state of the world’s fathers that includes data and policy recommendations for improving the distribution of care globally.
Who Cares? The Gendered Burden of Unpaid Care Work | Aina Salleh | TEDx Goodenough College - a short talk outlining gender differences in unpaid care work, along with some strategies, and the importance of changing social norms
Spain hopes domestic tasks app will ensure men pull their weight - news article from The Guardian about an app released by Spain’s government to help make household work and its distribution among household members more visible
Sources
Sources
Abed, D. and Kelleher, F. (2022). The Assault of Austerity: How prevailing economic policy choices are a form of gender-based violence. Oxfam International.
DOI: 10.21201/2022.9844. https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/the-assault-of-austerity-how-prevailing-economic-policy-choices-are-a-form-of-g-621448/
Institute of Development Studies, Oxfam (2015). Redistributing care work for gender equality and justice – a training curriculum. https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/6600/Redistributing%20Care%20Work%20final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
International Labor Organization. Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_633166.pdf.
UN Women (2022). A toolkit on paid and unpaid care work: From 3Rs to 5Rs. https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2022/07/a-toolkit-on-paid-and-unpaid-care-work
Terminology (in order of appearance)
Terminology (in order of appearance)
resilient: able to recover after a disturbance
household: a system where people living together care for each other and do domestic work, often termed the 'core economy'
care: the act of providing what is necessary for the health, welfare, upkeep, and protection of someone or something
regenerate: the process of restoring and revitalising something
system: a set of interdependent parts that organise to create a functional whole
economy: all the human-made systems that transfer and transform energy and matter to meet human needs and wants
market: a system where people buy and sell goods and services for a price.
commons: a system where people self-organise to co-produce and manage shared resources.
state: a system that provides essential public services, and also governs and regulates other economic institutions
regenerate: the process of restoring and revitalising something
provisioning institution: a group of people and their relationships as they try to meet human needs and wants
commoning: when a group of people self-organise to manage shared resources
redundant: something that is repetitive, not necessary under normal circumstances, but useful in unusual circumstances
universality: being applicable in all cases
social cohesion: the extent to which people in society feel connected to one another and share common values
power: the ability to influence events or the behaviour of other people
householding: managing a household, including all both direct and indirect care skills
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