The Burden of Triple-Shift on Women
A documentary photo essay on the sociological concept of triple-shift and how women are forced into an exploiting system without having any input from them. For this project, I covered three women with different relationship status and family dynamics and how each one of them reflects the reality of women’s lives in the Pakistani context.
"I literally came from office at 6:45 pm and then I had to clean up the room and cook for everyone. And he works from home the entire time and he keeps saying how tired he is every 15 minutes and is asked to go rest right away!” She jokingly said while I was setting up the place for my shots.
While she might have been joking, there was some truth to it too. She might have said it to tease her husband but the reality is far different for far too many women across the world, as multiple researches have shown over the years.
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild referred to the unpaid work at home as the “double shift” for women, after her detailed study on heterosexual couples in the 1970s and 1980s. The unpaid work at home often times include reproductive work, housework and caring for other family members. According to statistics by International Labour Organisation, on average women around the world spend 4 hours and 25 minutes on unpaid work compared to 1 hour and 23 minutes for men. (Power, 2020)
There is another unspoken duty assigned to women in families and that is the responsibility of the emotional well-being of the entire family, whether it be just one person or five. Feminist economists termed this as “triple shift” for women which includes: paid work, unpaid work or reproductive work, and emotional labour.
Y* is a married, working woman and lives with her husband and his family. She is also studying for her PhD and doesn’t have kids. However, even without kids, she still has three different responsibilities that she needs to look after: her job and studies, the housework and her relationship with her husband. There is often this assumption that if a woman has no kids, her house responsibility is almost non-existent. This is rarely ever a case especially in Pakistani society where a lot of women are expected to live with their in-laws.
Moreover, even with a supportive partner, women still do a lot more housework as compared to men. In a study researching heterosexual couples and how they spend their time, the researchers found that “for 35 percent of the time in which women were doing housework, the men were engaged in leisure activities”. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t the same case for women. Compared to men, women engaged in leisure activities “for 19 percent of the time that men spent engaged in routine work.”
Amna is a single, working woman living with her ageing parents. Since she’s an artist, she doesn’t have the luxury of proper work timings and a different office space which divides the private from the professional.
Due to the pandemic, a lot of men started working from home, however, they had the privilege of prioritised work, especially over the women in their households. And yet so many of them complained how it was so difficult to work at home despite being given free space and reign to work primarily because there was no clear divide between the private and the professional. Working women, especially those with home-based setups, do not have the same privilege as given to men who work from home. But rather their work is considered more important and valuable than women’s careers.
Similarly, while Amna isn’t married she still lives with her ageing parents, hence, have similar responsibilities as Y*. The only difference is, that for Amna, the housework and the emotional labour is for her parents and family, not her in-laws. The triple shift still exists even though she’s not in a romantic relationship or have the duties which comes with being married in a Pakistani society.
In the local context, there are varying opinions and views regarding working women. Some are more progressive and accepting while others are strongly conservative with “allowing” women to work. However, there is a middle ground as well with a different narrative: why should a woman work when she knows that it’s only going to be an additional burden knowing that the husband or family members are not going to give her any leeway? If a woman isn’t driven by her career, prioritise her financial independence or pursue her interests, then going for a paid job is just hurting herself in the long run knowing the unfair family dynamics at home which they would have to eventually deal with, in other words: triple shift.
B* is a married woman with two kids but she is not a working woman. She is smart and talented, and if it comes down to it, she can have a stable source of income. However, shas the responsibility of the entire family both in sense of emotional well-being as well as physical health. There isn’t time or much room for her to follow her interests (if she wanted).
During the pandemic and especially with online classes, the burden of childcare has increased significantly for mothers, without the institutional support. They have to attend online classes with their kids, teach them, and keep them focused. And then after the class is over, there is another study session which, again, they are responsible for. In a study focusing on parents, the researchers found that, “fathers relaxed for 47 percent of the time that their partners were looking after the child, while mothers did the same for only 16 percent of the time that their partners were performing childcare duties”.
In professional world, teaching alone is considered one paid job. However, there are multiple jobs that mothers are supposed to perform every single day especially when the kids are young. A mother’s relationship with her older kids is often based on emotional kinship than physical care, since older kids tend to be a bit more responsible and self-reliant. Same cannot be said for younger kids.
For B*, there is also the emotional well-being of her in-laws. There is emotional attachment and dependence on her so she needs to keep them in account for whatever decision that’s being made, even if that’s personal. With all these responsibilities, she doesn’t have the room for a proper paid job especially knowing that it’s only going to be a burden for her when she already has so much on her plate.
And yet, if she were to have her own source of income, it would’ve been through becoming a make-up artist. Given how she has such little time for herself, it is a far off reality. Not to add, if she were to pursue it, this would prove to be an additional burden on her only, given the family dynamics which are prevalent across the Pakistani society.
At its core, the triple burden which falls on women due to their varying roles becomes a major hurdle to women’s economic empowerment, and infringes upon their basic human rights. Women being “superheroes” and managing everything well, at the expense of their own loss, shouldn’t be glorified.
It isn’t about what women can do or cannot do, it’s about them ensuring that institutional and societal factors don’t hinder them from what they want to do and does not create additional burden for them. There might relatively be more women in formal employment, however, the fact remains that when they come home, they have the same amount of work to do as a non-working woman without any aid. Not just that, but often times women are warned to not take up paid employment or have careers otherwise they will have to break themselves apart in order to take care of the family. While some take up the challenge, others don’t. When, ideally, there shouldn’t be any such challenges in the first place and women shouldn’t have to choose between their careers or well-being.
