Mackett, Odile2024-09-182024-09-182022Mackett, Odile. (2022). Unpaid reproductive labour and decent work in the South African labour market [PhD thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40949https://hdl.handle.net/10539/40949A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Johannesburg 2022Since the 1970s, women’s increased labour force participation has caught the attention of scholars, governments, labour unions and organisations such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The increase in female labour force participation has accompanied the globalisation and liberalisation of product and labour markets around the world. As a result, the ILO developed the ‘decent work agenda’ (DWA) to set a standard by which to measure the labour market vulnerability of workers. The DWA is an aspirational statement about the sort of work that ought to define the lives of all who work and who want to work. Unpaid reproductive labour, which is performed outside of the productive labour market and predominantly by women, has proven to be a major constraint for women’s advancement in paid work. Furthermore, despite gender equality in the workplace being listed as one of the main objectives of the DWA, in instances where unpaid labour has not intersected with the productive labour market, it has largely been ignored. This study empirically investigated whether the ILO’s DWA is conceptualised in a way that reflects a commitment to real gender equality in the labour market by demonstrating a link between work performed unpaid in service of the household and the quality or ‘decency’ of wage work. Using Labour Force Survey and Time-Use Survey data, theresults showed that the more time an employed individual spent on unpaid reproductive labour, the worse the quality of their paid job. However, this relationship was only significant for women and only during a period when the government undertook a contractionary fiscal approach. The findings of this study demonstrate important links between the household and the public sector and the extent to which women, through their household labour, keep the economy running when government and business are unable to do soen© 2022 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.GenderReproductive LabourDecent WorkCare WorkGender InequalityLabourUCTDSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg