Homemakers and Social Security

Homemakers are persons of either sex, who are engaged in household duties in their own home and who are not economically active within the terms of the International Labour Organization's (ILO) definition-that is, work carried out for income, wages, or salary. The term homemaker is not gender specific. A trend (especially in Western societies) during the late 20th century is that increasing numbers of men are adopting the role of a homemaker. A large majority of homemakers are still women, possibly because traditionally homemaking has been seen to be “women's work.” Recently, many feminists have criticized the institution, claiming that by having the husband as the only financial supporter the wife is entrenched in economic subordination.

Feminists confirm that homemaking should not be gender specific. According to United Nation (UN) figures, women do two-thirds of the world's work for 5 percent of the world's income. The work that homemakers do is not only central to the well-being of humanity, but it is the work that underpins economics and the work upon which capital bases its profits. By producing workers and caring for workers, women directly contribute to the profits of capital. But while the wage worker gets a fraction of the wealth they create, the housewife gets none.

Social security is a woman's issue (and increasingly an issue for the generic homemaker). Since its inception, social security has often been the only income source that prevents women from living out their days in abject poverty. Women are absent from the labor force for an average of 15 percent of their working careers, primarily to fulfill responsibilities as carers of their children, spouses, or elderly family members. International instruments adopted by the UN such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, affirm that every human being has the right to social security. The Declaration of Philadelphia the International Labor Conference recognized the ILO's obligation in regard to “the extension of social security measures to provide a basic income to all in need of such protection and comprehensive medical care.” However, because societies have not recognized the economic value of the goods and services provided by the homemaker to her or his family and the community; the homemaker as a “nonworking” person is deprived of job-related benefits. No international or European instruments contain any specific provisions relating to the right of homemakers to social security.

At the 1995 UN World Conference for Women in Beijing, governments agreed to recognize women's unwaged work and to value that vital contribution to the economy. The conference agreed that this work included “caring for children and older persons, preparing food for the family, protecting the environment and providing voluntary assistance to vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals and groups.” However in paragraph 175(g) the Platform for Action instructed member states to “adopt policies to extend or maintain the protection of labor laws and social security provision for those who do paid work in the home.”

The consequence of this lack of provision is that women make up the primary group that is excluded from social security. So-called housewives are dependant on their husbands and fathers in terms of some of the social security schemes such as healthcare, maternity benefits, child benefits, and pensions. Many housewives are affiliated to the social security system as self-employed in order to supplement the household income with an eventual old-age benefit. However this system, where the premium payments required for voluntary insurance is high, makes it almost impossible for women to benefit from this option.

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