Recently, Surjit Bhalla took me to task for (supposedly) using female labor force participation (FLFP) as an indicator of women’s status. He argues that FLFP measurement reflects cross-national differences in definitions of work rather than the fundamental situation of women. Women’s work in home production, for example, is not counted in FLFP. Therefore, female labor force participation is underestimated.

In a purely statistical sense, he is right. Home production is indeed undercounted in FLFP. For example, when West Bengal’s rate of female labor force participation is expanded to include all economic activities that enable households to save expenditure, it rises from 28 percent to 52 percent.

But if we’re interested in patriarchy, we must distinguish between different kinds of work.

Not every kind of work is emancipatory. Ethnographies, focus groups, and surveys tell us that rural women’s contributions are scarcely considered “work” by men, and sometimes, even by women themselves. Women’s farm work does not guarantee women’s esteem, autonomy, or protection from violence. Even if northern Indian women work long days harvesting crops, pounding grain, and fetching firewood, they still eat last. As a 19th century Haryana saying goes, “jeore se nara ghisna hai” (women as cattle bound, working and enduring all).

Furthermore, we must differentiate between unpaid contributions to the household and paid work in the public sphere. When women work for family-owned enterprises, they remain under the control of kin. Market, factory, and office employment offer far greater possibilities for female solidarity. Through paid work in the public sphere, women gain esteem, build diverse friendships, discover more egalitarian alternatives, collectively criticize patriarchal privileges, and become emboldened to resist unfairness.

Paid work in the public sphere is counted under FLFP. So, while FLFP mismeasurement does erase women’s valuable contributions to their households, it correctly tracks the kinds of work which provide pathways toward female emancipation and solidarity.

Read the full article about female labor force participation by Alice Evans at Brookings.