Translator: Sebastian Betti Reviewer: Denise RQ
(Alarm ringing)
It's 6 am; you wake up, take a shower, get dressed,
check that the schoolbag is ready,
check school clothes,
make breakfast, school lunch,
you go over everything you have to do for the day;
you have to buy groceries, pay bills,
take your mother-in-law to the doctor,
make an appointment with the pediatrician,
do the laundry, iron a little, go to the dry-cleaner's,
to pick up clothes you took a few days ago,
clean the bathroom and the kitchen,
and call the plumber because there's a leak in the bathroom.
Oh! And, think about your child's birthday
and buy the helium, because balloons with helium are all the rage,
so you have to rent the helium tank.
You wake up the kids, give them breakfast, get them dressed, take them to school,
come back home and start doing what you have to do, you get a phone call.
Your daughter is crying inconsolably.
Her tummy hurts, so you have to go pick her up.
You return home, attempt to organize the day, however possible,
You bring her home; you go pick up your other son at school,
return home, oversee homework, give them an afternoon snack,
check the communication notebook from school
to see if you have to buy a Bangladesh map for the next day.
(Laughter)
You take them to swimming, tennis, soccer, English classes, music, ballet;
you come back home, give the kids a bath, get them into their pajamas, cook dinner,
your partner arrives, eat dinner together, take the kids to bed, read a story,
and they fall asleep.
(Sighing)
(Laughter)
It may not be one of Alvar Puente's day, but it is something.
(Laughter)
It's ten o'clock at night, you haven't paid the bills, and are due today.
Thank God somebody invented e-banking.
So you sign in, pay the bills,
and it turns out the bank offers you a new service that is OK,
and anything that makes your life easier is a good thing.
And you say to yourself, "I am going to sign on for this service,"
and you fill out the information the bank asks for,
you get to the section "Activity" and the system gives you five options:
"Employee", "Self-employed," "Business owner,"
"Student", "Does not work,";
you are not an employee, you are not self-employed,
you are not a businessman nor a student.
The only option left is, "Does not work."
And that is how reproductive, care, and domestic work is defined today.
It is not work.
If you aren't paid, it isn't work, and nobody pays you to do that.
Now, I as ask you: What do you think? Is it really work?
Well, if we go over the to-do list I mentioned a while ago,
it is indeed work, a lot of work; and it demands a lot of responsibility.
However, when a woman -- because in general it's women,
although there are more and more men doing this kind of work --
when a woman has to say
what she does, as a mother,
the choice in general is she "does not work."
This was not always the case, and let me pause for a second
to give a heartfelt thanks to the Germans,
who have been making polls since the beginning of times
and kept the data.
And thanks to that, we know now that in 1881,
a first census took place in Germany
in which the work done within the family was not considered an economic activity.
Before 1881, the economic activity rate
for men and women in Germany was identical and equal to 98 percent.
In this 1881 census, the economic activity rate for men
remains at 98 percent,
while the figure for women falls magically to 42 percent.
Less than half. Why?
Because in that census,
what a woman did at home wasn't seen as an economic activity.
Well, OK, it's laundering, cooking, ironing.
But it was also making preserves for the winter,
making clothes, taking care of the vegetable garden;
however, that was not considered an economic activity any more.
Since then, since the Industrial Revolution,
when the axis of production shifted away from the family,
work is what you do outside your home and get paid for.
Everything else, the things we do so that our family can live their lives,
for their well-being, that doesn't exist;
no one keeps record of it; it's invisible.
Nevertheless, it's essential.
And what happens if I have to replace it?
If I can't take the children to school, I have to hire a transportation service;
if I can't clean my house, I have to pay someone to do it for me;
if I can't breastfeed, I have to formula-feed the baby,
and if I can't take care of my children,
I need to pay a nanny or take them to a daycare center.
Then the reproductive, care, and domestic work has a price
if I need to replace it, but it has no value if I do it myself.
In his play "Lysistrata," Aristophanes proposes that the women of Athens
go on a sexual strike to end the Peloponnese War.
The Peloponnese War had been going on for a long time now
and women were tired, so Lysistrata summons her friends,
asks them to bring their friends and she tells them,
"Well, ladies, look, let's tell the guys that while the war is on...
Nothing happens."
(Laughter)
What would happen
if a modern Lysistrata summoned to a strike not for sex but for care work?
How can the economic system stand without the invisible work
of thousands of millions of women that cook, clean, do laundry, iron?
But they also tell stories, sing songs, dry tears.
I try to picture a world like that,
and the truth is that it looks very similar to those Sci-Fi dystopias
that show future worlds, dark worlds.
That is how I imagine the world without the work of all those women.
Work, indeed, because reproductive work is work.
This comes on top of productive work
if a woman is also employed outside the home,
and there're a lot of women
who, vocationally or due to need, work outside their homes.
In Argentina, almost 50 percent of women are employed outside their homes.
Women earn less than men.
The average gender pay gap in Argentina is 27 percent on average.
It varies with level of education - larger for lower levels of education -
and also geographically.
In Patagonia, the pay gap jumps from 27 to 41 percent.
Why? Because of the oil industry.
The oil industry is a male-driven activity,
and it pays very well, which increases the pay gap.
There are women who earn less for the same job.
And that can only be called unfair.
But there are other women who earn less because they work less hours,
and you may tell me, "Well, that's OK, it's fair.
If they work less hours it's OK that they earn less."
Now, why do women work less hours?
Well, women work less hours because in general they have two jobs:
one paid for and another one, for which, if they are lucky,
they get a thank-you
and an appliance as a gift for Mother's Day.
(Laughter)
And if we try to find a solution?
I insist, our day may not resemble Alvar Puente's days, but it is something.
We look for a way to cope with it and buy self-help books.
And all the solutions we get are based on personal decisions:
Be better organized, make lists, ask for what you need,
hey, learn to negotiate,
negotiate with your partner, negotiate with your employer.
Why do we let something as important as care work and parenting be done
based solely on personal sacrifices and relinquishing personal interests?
Do we fully understand how important the presence of mothers and fathers are
during early childhood for the healthy development of a human being?
Are we aware of the sacrifices that men and women are making
- mainly women, but men as well -
to combine productive and reproductive work?
And who says there's such thing as "men stuff" and "women stuff"?
Because the truth is, as I've said, women have two jobs.
When we have small children this is very obvious,
because a mother who works in and outside the home
and has a small kid, puts her body on the line both at work and at home,
for instance, by breastfeeding or by taking care of her child,
but there're many other things
that remain within women's sphere of action, within families,
because it seems women have a natural skill for those activities;
such as the emotional support of adult children,
the caring for older adults as well,
organizing birthday parties,
or getting the helium tank for the balloons,
supervising the vaccination calendar, checking the communication notebook;
these are all things that seem to fall within the mom's field of action.
Who says there're "men stuff" and "women stuff"?
What's the reason for this sexual division of work that is not sexy at all?
If I think of someone to clean my house
- and I've been thinking about these issues for quite some time -
I automatically think of a woman.
And if I think about a painter, carpenter, plumber,
almost automatically I think of a man,
and if I go looking for a woman, I'll have a hard time finding one.
Why?
Well, maybe it all starts here, in the toy store,
because children learn through play; the toy store is organized by colors.
It seems that boys like primary colors,
and girls only like pink or purple
(Laughter)
and then, as I said, as kids learn through play,
and boys learn to be a carpenter,
they learn how to be a superhero - that is a good one -
they learn how to be a race car driver, but they don't learn how to be a dad.
Boys don't play the daddy.
Girls, instead, we learn how to be cooks,
how to be princesses, how to be moms.
Things are changing, and I'm sure that in this audience
there're many who are breaking out
with these stereotypes.
Today, there're women who work and are very successful,
and fathers that work part-time to care for the kids;
single mothers raising kids by themselves
and building support networks to be able to take care
of everything they have to do,
so the situation is changing mostly through personal attitude,
but we need this change to go beyond the personal.
We need to highlight the value that care work has for society.
This can only be done through government policies.
Some things have changed, and, for example, in Argentina,
we have an insufficient maternity leave at national level.
It's the minimum granted by the International Labor Organization.
Three months, that's it.
And we are, oh, so smart because, on the other hand,
we're telling mothers "exclusive breastfeeding for six months,"
but you have to go back to work within three months.
But in some places, some provinces, there's a six-month maternity leave,
though this is not generalized.
In Argentina, there's been a significant amendment
to our Civil Code,
which puts money contributions within the marriage contract
on a par with care work;
this is almost revolutionary and it happened in 2015.
We also have retirement for housewives,
which is a recognition, but it's coming a little late.
We can take a look at what is being done in other countries,
for example, in Peru and Costa Rica,
where they are starting to calculate the money value,
the economic value of care work,
and looking for a way to include it in the GDP.
A few months ago, Uruguay started a debate on public care policies,
trying to give families support from the state
for reproductive work,
ranging from care in early childhood all the way to care of elderly parents,
but including also care of disabled people,
which also falls primarily on women.
And leading the way for a long time now
is Scandinavia,
which has an integral approach to the valorization of care work
that starts with a six-month maternity leave
but continues with a shared parental leave,
by which each parent takes half
- in Argentina the paternity leave lasts two days -
It's for fathers to do the paperwork, just in case they do something else.
Two days, that's it.
In Scandinavia
both parents have leaves that last months and are shared.
They also have gender quotas,
not only in elective political positions
but also in private companies BOD.
And something very interesting:
an incentive for men to study
and follow careers traditionally considered as feminine,
such as early education teaching and nursing.
An integral approach that shows the value care work has for society
and one that makes it evident through an actual policy.
That's what we need.
I invite you again to imagine a world
where modern-day Lysistratas call women out on a care work strike.
What would happen then?
Thank you.
(Applause)