The Invisible Backbone of Our Economy
I got interested in GDP growth before I went to university. I had no idea why, high school didn’t include macroeconomics, but somehow I felt that the problems of the world were connected to the economic growth paradigm (and in some cases, the lack of it). Studying economics and peace-and-development at university, it became obvious of GDP’s shortcomings as a measure of human progress for environmental reasons. My first regression analysis in 2012 was total GDP and total CO2e emissions globally, and I also compared it per capita. It was mind-blowing to me how we sacrificing the long-term stability of planet Earth’s biosphere (where humans, under the 10,000-year epoch of the Holocene, have thrived).
But it wasn’t until I read Diane Coyle’s book A Brief History of GDP several years later that it became obvious to me, despite holding a bachelor’s degree in economics, how GDP’s shortcomings extended to the social sphere, particularly from a gender perspective. We truly live in an economic system created by men for men. Let me explain how.
The Economic Invisibility of Women’s Work
Women in the Asia Pacific Economy Cooperation (APEC) region spend an average of around 4 hours and 20 minutes daily doing unpaid care and domestic work, almost three times the time spent by men, in line with the global average. The ILO estimates that unpaid care and domestic work could be worth as much as 9% of global GDP (USD 11 trillion), with women’s contribution at around 6.6% of GDP compared to men’s 2.4%. In some APEC economies, the value of unpaid work ranges from 5.5% of GDP to as high as 41.3% of GDP.
Nearly 90 billion hours of unpaid care work, without which economic growth would grind to a halt, are excluded from GDP calculations. Professor Naila Kabeer explains why this omission makes GDP a deeply flawed metric. In fact, almost two-thirds of women’s weekly working hours, and 45% of total working hours for all adults, are not counted in GDP because they fall outside of the market economy.
If unpaid domestic and care work were given an equivalent monetary value, it would constitute a substantial portion of global GDP, exceeding 40% in some countries. At the global level, the ILO estimated in 2018 that around 16.4 billion hours were devoted to unpaid care work daily, equivalent to 2 billion people working full-time with no pay, or roughly 25% of the world’s total population. When valued at an hourly minimum wage, this unpaid care work would amount to 9% of global GDP, or approximately USD 11 trillion.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, unpaid care work represents an estimated 21.4% of GDP, significantly above the OECD average of 15%. In some countries, if the value of unpaid care work were quantified, it could account for 21 cents of every dollar generated in the formal economy. However, time-use surveys vary widely and are often not comparable, making accurate estimates challenging.
The Global North’s Economic Dependence on Women’s Labour
The Global North's economic growth has long been dependent on the extraction of resources and labour from the Global South. International financial institutions (IFIs), controlled largely by Global North interests, have enabled multinational corporations to profit at the expense of poorer economies. This has resulted in a system where women’s unpaid and underpaid labour sustains economies across the world.
In South America, for example, 35% of land is now dedicated to soya cultivation, while non-biodegradable fertilizer use has increased by 69%. Between 2019 and 2021, natural resources accounted for over 50% of total exports and 10.1% of Latin America’s GDP. The neoliberal model relies on cheap migrant labour, maquiladoras, and the continued exploitation of natural resources, creating unstable economies where women bear the brunt of economic insecurity.
Women’s Labour: The Backbone of the Economy, Yet Unprotected
Despite being central to economic production and social stability, women’s labour remains undervalued and underpaid. Care work, which provides the foundation for economic productivity, is often taken for granted and its issues (overworked staff, long waiting lists for patients) often overlooked, but would that be the case if it was male-dominated?
Globally, remittances, much of it from migrant women workers, play a crucial role in sustaining economies. Remittances to Latin American and Caribbean countries were projected to reach a record USD 155 billion in 2023, an increase of 9.5% from 2022. This represents a crucial economic lifeline, yet the sacrifices of migrant women workers are often ignored in GDP calculations.
Meanwhile, GDP does not account for the intergenerational consequences of forced migration, the leadership vacuum created by the exodus of highly skilled women, or the environmental degradation caused by exploitative industries. The enormous economic contributions of former colonies to GDP-calculated wealthy nations also remain invisible within GDP statistics.
The False Prosperity of Military Expenditure
Militarization further distorts economic well-being as measured by GDP. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, for example, has the highest military spending in the world, with an average of 12.5% of government expenditure going toward military budgets—far exceeding the global average of 7.1%. Military spending as a percentage of GDP in the MENA region stood at 4.7% in 2023, compared to less than 3% in other regions.
This spending inflates GDP but does not translate to genuine economic progress. Instead, militarization leads to war, displacement, and widespread human suffering—especially for women and children, who bear the brunt of conflict. GDP, as a measure, fails to capture the devastation wrought by military economies that prioritise weapons over welfare.
Toward a Feminist Economy: Measuring What Matters
The orthodox capitalist economic system, grounded in neoclassical theories, treats nature as a resource, humans as capital, and efficiency as the ultimate goal. This perspective is inherently imbalanced, lacking the feminine principles of care, community, and creation.
A truly feminist economy would prioritise well-being over relentless growth, centring values such as equity, sustainability, and collective prosperity. This means recognising and valuing unpaid care work, investing in social infrastructure, and ensuring fair wages for all workers, particularly in female-dominated sectors. It also means shifting economic priorities away from militarization and extractivism toward regenerative and community-driven models of development.
We must demand a system that acknowledges the essential contributions of women, not just by closing the gender pay gap, but by fundamentally redefining economic success. A caring economy rooted in feminist principles is the only way forward.
This Women’s Day, let us not only celebrate women’s achievements but also challenge the economic structures that continue to exploit and marginalise them. It’s time for an economy that measures what truly matters.
Resources and Further Reading
Coyle, D. (2014). GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History. Princeton University Press.
Kabeer, N. (2015). Gender, Labour Markets and Poverty Reduction: A Policy Perspective. UNRISD.
International Labour Organization (ILO). (2018). Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work.
Oxfam International. (2023). Time to Care: Unpaid and Underpaid Care Work and the Global Inequality Crisis.
World Bank. (2023). Women, Business and the Law 2023.
UN Women. (2023). Progress of the World’s Women 2023: Beyond GDP.
Federici, S. (2004). Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body and Primitive Accumulation.
Shiva, V. (1998). Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development. South End Press.
