2.4.3 The role of businesses/markets

Ariel is a laundry detergent brand produced by multinational corporation Procter & Gamble. For years, Ariel has run an advertising campaign challenging gender stereotypes in domestic work in India, a country with high disparities in unpaid care work. The #ShareTheLoad campaign encourages men to take on laundry tasks traditionally done by women. Ariel's initiative demonstrates how business marketing may be able to change social norms for more equitable and resilient households. The short video below is an example of Ariel’s campaign.

Businesses in markets can strengthen households in a number of areas: the workplace and supply chains, the marketplace, and society (Figure 1).

Businesses can support household caregiving responsibilities for employees and those in their supply chains through various workplace policies. Providing time, money, facilities, and equitable treatment helps balance unpaid care and paid work, empowering women in particular.

• paid family or community care leave: offering employees paid leave for caregiving reduces household care costs. This is especially important in countries without state-funded care leave.

• flexible working hours and location, shorter workweeks: allowing employees to adjust their hours or work from home can reduce the stress balancing unpaid care and paid work. However, this option is often not available for low-wage jobs where people have to be physically present. Workers in these jobs often need the most flexibility, so not being able to take flexible hours can contribute to economic and social inequalities. 

In addition, if people have to multitask by doing unpaid care work and paid work at the same time, this may also increase stress. This was the case for many parents, often women, who had to care for children while trying to do paid work at home during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Businesses are also experimenting with four-day work weeks for all employees. The results of these experiments indicate positive wellbeing impacts for employees with little impact on productivity for many businesses.

• offering goods and services at fair prices: fair prices for essential goods and services ensure households are not financially overburdened, helping families meet their needs.

• using promotional strategies to change social norms: businesses can challenge gender stereotypes through their promotional campaigns and other engagement with customers. For example, advertising that shows men and women sharing household tasks equally can help shift societal norms, like Ariel’s #ShareTheLoad campaign.

Businesses have the power to advocate for policies that support households by:

• building shared equipment and physical infrastructure: businesses can collaborate with local communities, the state, and nongovernmental organisations to improve shared equipment and large-scale infrastructure, such as water, sanitation, and mobility. This helps households reduce the time needed to meet their needs. For example, a consumer goods company partnered with Oxfam in the Philippines and Zimbabwe to build communal laundries, reducing time spent on washing clothes (and likely increasing the use of the company’s products).

• lobbying the state for policy changes and support advocacy work of other organisations: businesses can use their power to advocate for state policies that recognise, reduce, redistribute, and reward care work. They can also support women's and care advocacy groups to be represented in policy decisions.

While these strategies may increase production costs in the short run, businesses, like everyone in society, benefit from well-functioning, resilient households and healthy communities.

• Business Briefing on Unpaid Care and Domestic Work - An Oxfam report on how businesses can improve their roles regarding unpaid care and domestic work. Difficulty level: medium

• SystemShift Podcast Episode 7: Rebalancing Power with Jayati Ghosh - A Greenpeace SystemShift podcast with feminist economist Jayati Ghosh, who discusses the role of powerful business interests in inequality. Difficulty level: medium

• Men want to increase care work at home. Here's how business can help - an article from the World Economic Forum about what businesses can do to make it easier and more attractive for men to participate in household care and domestic work. Difficulty level: easy

Coffey, C. et al. (2020). Time to Care: Unpaid and underpaid care work and the global inequality crisis. Oxfam International. https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/time-to-care-unpaid-and-underpaid-care-work-and-the-global-inequality-crisis-620928/

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

Oxfam GB (2019). Business Briefing on Unpaid Care and Domestic Work. https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/business-briefing-on-unpaid-care-and-domestic-work-why-unpaid-care-by-women-and-620764/

Link to Quizlet interactive flashcards and terminology games for Section 2.4.3 The role of business/markets

multinational company: a company that operats in its home country and at least one other country

care: the act of providing what is necessary for the health, welfare, upkeep, and protection of someone or something

marketing: the strategies a business uses to sell its products

norm: a social rule for accepted and expected behaviour, can be stated or unstated

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'

market: a system where people buy and sell goods and services for a price.

supply chain: the sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a product

empower: becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one's life and claiming one's rights

wage: payment for work

intrahousehold bargaining: the negotiation among household members around resources, responsibilities, and decisions

power: the ability to influence events or the behaviour of other people

reinforcing feedback: a situation where change in a system causes further changes that amplify the original change which can lead to tipping points in a system

care leave: time off of paid work used to care for others; can be paid or unpaid by the employer or state

culture: the beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviours and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

social foundation: human needs that need to be met for human survival and wellbeing

ecological ceiling: the limits of human impact on Earth's ecological systems

Doughnut Economics model: a model for sustainable development shaped like a doughnut, combining the concept of human needs with planetary boundaries

promotional campaign: marketing strategies, such as advertising, that attempt to persuade consumers to buy products

non-governmental organisation (NGO): an organisation that is independent from government

planetary boundaries: the limits of Earth systems to absorb the impact of human activity and continue to function