'Invisible' work
The national census 6, is designed to give the government a freeze-frame of the Australian population. But in its picture of the labour market, at least 1.7 million women are left out.
Women engaged as housewives, farm workers and unpaid charity and community workers are finding this year's census a more unpalatable pill than ever. For, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, these women do not work.
Census figures record work as legitimate only if it is paid.
This shows just how far Australia has to go to recognise the contribution women make to the national economy.
According to a report by Sue Neales of the Financial Review, many women classified by the ABS as not working and engaged in "home duties and child-care" are fed up.
A worldwide push, led by New Zealand Feminist Marilyn Waring, is seeking to change the way Australia's mothers working in the home answer the census. When it comes to recording where they work, how much they are paid and how many hours they work, Waring recommends women list their contribution regardless of the ABS stipulation that unpaid work and home duties do not count.
So, when it comes to answering question 30, which asks whether employment is full or part time, women should not tick the "no" box. And at questions 34 and 35, which apply to the type of work done, housewives are encouraged to fill in their duties as managers, child carers, housekeepers and laundry women.
But according to Eva Cox and Helen Leonard of the Sydney-based Women's Economic Think Tank, the belief that real work is paid work is not restricted to the ABS, but is ingrained throughout Australian society. In their recent report, "Recognising Women's Skills", Cox and Leonard argue that the very word "skill" conjures images of tools and trades and formal qualifications — men's work. Compared with a bricklayer or business administrator, a woman who runs a household and the accounts for the local kindergarten sees herself as unskilled. Both women and employers often fail to see these skills as comparable to those in the paid workforce.
Cox believes that ignoring the scope of the tasks which make up the unpaid work sector is leading to a massive understatement of the Australian skill base.
The invisibility of the unpaid work sector has led to other forms of discrimination against women. The secretary of the Australian Family Association, Sue Bastick, described the prejudices these women are exposed to at a conference in Canberra last week: "Because your job has no monetary value, you are uninsurable. You do not have the right to superannuation accorded every other Australian worker. And the tax system simply casts you as a dependent."
The ABS is aware of the discriminatory nature of the census. Two ABS studies conducted in 1987, based on income forgone and work replacement value studies, estimated that unpaid household and voluntary work contribute up to $154 billion to GDP. This means the work women do not do, if we are to believe the census, boosts economic growth by more than 57%.
The ABS wants to have home and voluntary work included in GDP and national account estimations. So by the time the next census roles around in five years' time, the government may actually record, though not pay for, the labour which holds the economy together.
By Angela Matheson