Housework as Part of GNP

The counting and inclusion of women’s unwaged work in the GNP would have far-reaching ramifications for women’s legal rights by helping to even the odds for women facing the legal system. The issues of custody and divorce litigation are but one example.

As a volunteer with Legal Action for Women, a free legal service for grass-roots women in the San Francisco Bay Area, I have noted that of the 150 calls we received in October/November of this year, 45% were custody/divorce questions. Since we began in 1984, we have seen an increase in women losing custody of their children mainly because they lack the economic and, therefore, the legal power to keep them.

The reality is that women facing bias in the courts are not only full-time homemakers. It also affects women who are in waged work part-time because of the pressure of family responsibilities, women who are on a career track and take time off to raise small children either because of birth or adoption, as well as women in a waged job full-time but whose average wage is still 71 cents to every dollar a man earns. Bias in the courts is often compounded for women of color.

RACHEL WEST, San Francisco