細論廣大家庭主婦的經濟貢獻

imagine working long hours day in day out, falling into bed exhausted each night and getting up with the sun each morning — but never getting paid and never, according to the people who measure such things, actually “creating value”. It sounds grossly unfair, but this is the condition of most women around the world. When governments measure national economies in the gross domestic product, “women’s work” — caregiving, housekeeping, home-making — does not count as “work”.

想象一下，日復一日地長時間工作，每天早上太陽升起就起來，夜晚精疲力盡才入睡，但從來沒有報酬，而且，據那些測算經濟活動的人所說，也從來沒有真正“創造價值”。這聽起來極其不公平，但這就是世界各地大多數女性的境況。當政府以國內生產總值(GDP)計量國民經濟時，“女性的工作”——照顧家人、操持家務——不算“工作”。

Thanks to a new report out from McKinsey on the gender gap in the workplace, though, we now know the actual value of all this unpaid work: a staggering $10tn. That is roughly the size of China’s GDP. If all the women taking care of their families constituted one nation, it would have the fourth-largest economy in the world.

然而，麥肯錫(McKinsey)一份有關工作場所性別鴻溝的新報告告訴我們，這些沒有報酬的工作的實際價值達到令人震驚的10萬億美元。這大致相當於中國的GDP。如果所有照顧家庭的女性組成一個國家，那將是世界上第四大經濟體。

All this work, moreover, is just the physical dimension of care. As Anne-Marie Slaughter argues in her new book, Unfinished Business , caregiving includes the additional emotional component of love and nurture, the transformation of an income stream into the teaching, discipline, moral guidance, problem-solving, emotional support and role-modelling that raising children and simply investing in others requires. That is work worth measuring.

此外，這些勞動只是女性對家庭照顧的物理方面。正如安妮-瑪麗斯勞特(Anne-Marie Slaughter)在新書《未竟之業》(Unfinished Business)中提出的，照顧還包括愛和培育中附加的情感組成部分，把收入流轉化爲教導、訓誡、道德引導、問題解決、情感支持和樹立榜樣，這些都是養育孩子和將精力投入到其他人身上所必需的因素。這是一份值得衡量的工作。

These inequities exist in rich and poor countries alike. In rich countries, women turn money into the goods and services necessary for survival and flourishing: shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing, organising. In poor countries, women bear the burden of providing the basic necessities of life: hauling water and firewood, and farming subsistence crops.

這種不平等在富國和窮國都存在。在富國，女性將金錢轉換成生存和發展所必需的產品和服務：購物、烹飪、打掃、洗刷、整理。在窮國，女性則揹負着提供基本生活必需品的重擔：收集水和柴火，以及耕種用作口糧的農作物。

We must act. The economist Diane Elson has created a strategy that has been adopted by many advocates: “Recognise, reduce and redistribute.”

我們必須行動。經濟學家黛安娜埃爾森(Diane Elson)提出了一套得到許多支持者採用的策略：“認識、減少和再分配。”

Recognising the unfair burden being placed on women is the first step to addressing it. As long as economic statistics of record erase the work they do, it will be easier for everyone to ignore the disparity at the heart of our societies.

認識到女性揹負的不公正的重擔是解決這個問題的第一步。只要計量經濟學的記錄還在抹消女性的工作，大家就更容易忽視處於我們社會核心的不平等。

Reducing the amount of time and effort women spend doing tedious chores is possible with labour-saving technologies. In developing nations, where women spend hours gathering water and wood to run their households, this may mean efficient cookstoves, community cisterns and rural electrification. In richer countries, we have been using washing machines, electric irons, and vacuum cleaners for years. By reducing the 61 per cent of unpaid work that consists of routine household tasks, we can free up time for the valuable work of caring for children and elders.

通過節省勞力的技術來減少女性花在乏味家務上的時間和精力是可能的。在發展中國家，女性耗費很多時間來收集水和柴火以維持家用，這或許意味着我們需要高效率的爐竈、社區蓄水池和農村通電。在更發達的國家，多年來我們一直在使用洗衣機、電熨斗、真空吸塵器。通過減少佔日常家務61%的無償勞動，我們可以把這些時間釋放出來去做有意義的事——照顧孩子和老人。

Redistributing unpaid labour, the last step, means including men equally in the work and the joys of care. Men who bond with their children early on and become fully competent at childcare report that they experience a different and deeply fulfilling relationship. Moreover, when men and women are equal co-parents, they are both likely to push for the flexible work arrangements that would help everyone.

最後一點是重新分配家務活，這意味着男人也要平等地參與到照顧家庭的勞作和樂趣中來。那些很早就和子女建立親密關係，並且逐漸變得完全勝任照顧孩子的工作的男性表示，他們體驗到了一種與衆不同、深沉充實的親子關係。此外，當男女平等地分擔家長的工作時，他們很可能會爭取彈性的工作安排，這樣對所有人都有利。

We do not know with certainty what women will do with the extra time they gain from reducing and redistributing unpaid work. But it is hard to imagine they would not use some of it for economically productive activities or to further their education. That is where a second number in the McKinsey report comes in: if the world’s women were not assigned the majority of household tasks, forced to take part-time jobs to accommodate childcare and other important responsibilities, or shunted into low-paying professions, global GDP would grow by a breathtaking $28tn, a number larger than the US and Chinese economies combined.

減少和重新分配這些無償工作以後，女性會用這些多出來的時間做什麼，我們無法確定。但是，很難想象她們會不用一部分時間來從事經濟活動或者進修。這是麥肯錫報告提出的第二個數字：如果全世界的女性沒有承擔大部分的家務勞動，沒有爲了照顧孩子和擔負其他重大責任而被迫兼職工作，也沒有被打發到一些低工資職業，那麼全球GDP將增長28萬億美元，這個數字令人震驚，它比美國和中國經濟總量之和還大。

Estimates are tricky and real equality would mean men stepping back as women step up. Still, the business case is clear. Politicians, employers, investors, and voters have no excuse not to act.

估算是困難的，真正的平等意味着當女性向前邁一步的同時，男性要向後退一步。即便如此，經濟上的理由還是顯而易見的。政界人士，僱主，投資者和選民沒有藉口不採取行動。