THE BIG DEBATE: Should women be paid for domestic labour?

LABOUR    REVENUE

KAMPALA - They work like machines.  Their job burden includes, tilling gardens, taking care of children, cooking food, washing dishes and clothes, ironing clothes, mopping the house and diligently ensuring that all the other household chores are done. But for no pay!

According to the state minister for gender and cultural affairs, Peace Mutuuzo, the unpaid household labour situation is alarming when it comes to rural women.

"Some of the challenges faced by rural women and girls include the unfair distribution of productive resources including access to and control to land and the heavier workload including unpaid care work, which continues to constrain women's participation in decision-making and politics," Mutuuzo said on Wednesday while addressing journalists at the Uganda Media Centre.

The cost of unpaid women labour in the country, Mutuuzo said, is sh10 trillion.

We, therefore, in our big debate on social media today asked: Should women be paid for domestic labour?

You responded:

Ssekimwanyi Micheal: Already we pay them! Who told you that the money we leave at home every day is all used? Do you know how much they save on a monthly basis?

Paschal Odelok: If someone has applied for it as a job then it has to be paid for. If it is a family responsibility, then it is not to be paid for. Soon families will be in contracts and they will lose meaning because they will be monetised.

Kitenda Samuel: Giggs Every payment moves together with clear terms of reference and it's always contractual. It will be fine to pay them but men please make sure you sign short term contracts preferably six months

Munubbi Abdallah: 80 % of ladies have nothing to contribute to family progress. So if we start paying them, then we don't need them in our homes

Moses De Son: Who actually would be paying them yet men work both day and night, we are slaves of women, and how can a slave pay the servant.

Bala Okot: Read your Bible about creation. God created Eve to be a helper to Adam. To me, it's like Adam was overworking and needed relief in many ways. That's the special thing a man can bank on freely from a woman. Not to be bought.

Toney Namanya: Yes, they are being paid. From dating, courtship, bride price, sheltered, and feeding, among others… Perhaps you ask whether women's emancipation also implies equal responsibilities.

Bonny Echoku: No because home is home not some kind of money minting machines for housewives from husbands. As a Christian, it is not anywhere in the Bible.

Girum Farouk: They are yet to remain single for the rest of their life twakoowa stress. If we pay for labour, soon will pay for sex

Benard Benjamin Nsubuga: Now those guys are trying to make women lazier and less creative. Olaba they aren't paid but many of them are sitting at home without any business idea, they can't think about small businesses to start at home, then what will happen in this comfort zone of being paid for every day they spend at home, kyoka banaye.

Towongo Nickson Hillary: When we talk of women, it's a different thing,  first of all nowadays we have women who are married and those who are not married.  At least that minister would have said wives not women. OK if it is the case of married women, they should stop bringing maids to their houses to work for them, but I don't think it will work

To a lesser extent, it may work in order to reduce husband and wife conflicts but to a greater extent, however much we handle women like an egg, still they don't feel like they are married. The blame goes to Eve

Eng Mukasa Geofrey Nsaale: So that the minister wants to be paid again by her husband on top of her salary and on top of making sure she is satisfied and not starved, when will this world be fair to men?

Tna Woods: "Domestic labour?" As in cooking food and dishes? I think domestic labour is already paid by the one who buys the food. Some women can't even feed and care for themselves 100%, so if your friend is feeding and caring for you like your father then it's fair to do some cleaning. Lol

Nash Shabbe: I believe this is diversionary. To the best of my knowledge women have always advocated for gender equity and equality and it was granted to them constitutionally. Unless when these people are acting like vultures fathom how a full minister is advocating for this yet we believe that when a man and woman come together as a family are considered to be one and equal.

Sadat Binsilim Abdalla: you see the problem of foreign aid? This kind of reasoning Uganda can't afford, it's completely donor-funded!! So the man pays pride price plus the expenses that come with it then starts paying you for taking care of your family? Iteso would say "ebangana do ngin airas"

Kakiga Julius: Minister Mutuzo your becoming idle and disorderly. That is loose talk. As a youth Minister, you're supposed to think of how the youth can create jobs because in Uganda the ground is leveled, we have a free economy state

Ohisa James Boanerges: In the black society, that's so controversial, but with the whites, that's revolutionary, and whoever will stand for it will be counted among the most heroic, inspiring and iconic individuals

Ngor Mabor Matet: By who? And if you mean by the man of the house, it's paid already. And if the government wants to input more pay into domestic labour, it's highly recommended

Barno Busheshe: How can someone be paid for playing their family and parental roles? Who should pay them yet everyone in the family is trying hard to see it succeed?

Mwenda Abraham: Which domestic Labour? Doing what you were born to do, should be a privilege to have domestic work in your husband's house. What about singles, who will pay then doing the same domestic work?

Asiga Wilsøn: That is a normative economical statement, very controversial, who should pay the women; men, children, women themselves

Atuhaire Alex: In Ankole we have two proverbs, "Embwa efiire omutima ehiiga enjojo" and "Owenda kufa omutima ati nyowe ndi omurasi" you want to copy western culture and you will see where you will end

Os Car Tu: That's why housemaids/girls have got married to men of high profile. And after that you say men are unfaithful. Better stay at your parents' compound or we start marriage contracts

Zia Adrian Nyirira: I think that question is to the government unless you are saying there should be application and appointment letters, meaning marriage will lack meaning

Isaac Businge: Those who are in a typical ATS marriage setting where the wife is a typical housewife can hardly meet daily basic requirements for their families. So the minister is now suggesting that the husband in such a setting should pay the wife at the end of the month?

Other families where both the hubby and the wife are earning, they have domestic house helpers who are paid regularly.

B James Jimm: There is a hidden agenda behind, this is an agenda of breaking marriages so that the agenda of a certain secret society is achieved because marriage is a strong bond that if it is broken, it became easy to destroy the morals of the people. The minister doesn't know what she is pushing for but she is blindfolded in the disguise of a good law. Poor Uganda

Patrick Nsubuga: Not applicable, it's the maids who are paid for the domestic work they do. It's the obligation of the woman to take care of the home as a housewife. They can just be appreciated for the work they do but not the wedge thing, otherwise, things will worsen!.

Otingcwinyu Calvin Utwikende: It's like you want to limit the number of married couples, go on, introduce license for giving birth too

Shadrach Jeromes:  The only reason our bosses pay us is to make profits for them. So if I pay my wife for her obligations then she should be able to earn back profits for every coin. My wife is only a domestic worker if she is a slave to me which she is not. 

Tenywa Akishamu: Shaa paying her over what?

Omulangila Muyende Kennedy-Nicholous Mutyaba: Feminism is presumed to make women free but instead this generation is turning it into a feminine take over.

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