This work places an enormous time-tax on some people asymmetrically – particularly on women, and especially on poor women and children in developing countries – which limits other aspects of social engagement.
employment or market participation, a case in point is taking care of HIV/AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa (Akintola, 2004). In other cases it limits involvement in political processes, in attending school and medical appointments, skill upgrading, or artistic expression. At other times it reduces leisure and time available for self-care and sleep. In times of financial crisis, as in Argentina in 2001, as women increased their time for pay, the slack of unpaid work was picked up by elderly women (Esquivel, 2006). This can lead
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to social exclusion, time poverty, and depletion of human capabilities. Internalized as
one’s “destiny,” the inviolable obligations of unpaid work deprive some of their “rights” and citizenship by de facto segregation.