Care and Familial Duties, Services, and Work
Care work, paid as well as unpaid , is an aspect of reproductive labor that sustains human lives and conditions. This work, which may or may not include domestic work depending on the context of its provision, entails physical and emotional care of children as well as of the elderly , sick, and disabled. However, the tasks of child rearing, care of the elderly , and housekeeping are not viewed as âproductiveâ work that generates âsurplusâ for capital accumulation and economic growth and are therefore stigmatized as menial work. An ideological separation of the public and private sphere has also contributed to the marginalization of care work, given that it is primarily carried out by women within the private sphere, thus being rendered invisible. Exclusion from the jurisdiction of labor laws and like protection has undermined a perception of this work as âgenuine laborâ to be assessed in terms of labor relations or unionization. For these reasons, and with the exception of the work of feminist scholars and social policy experts, discussions on care work have remained outside mainstream narratives on labor history, political theory, and economic inquiry (Meerkerk et al. 2015; Mies 1986; Tronto 2013).
In earlier decades, as a result of demographic pressure in economically advanced countries, the issue of care was foregrounded not only within various fields of academic inquiry but also within political debates in multifarious ways. The âcrisis of careâ (Zimmerman et al. 2006) or, more broadly, the âcrisis of social reproduction â (Anderson and Shutes 2014; Fraser 2016) emerged as a major challenge relating to the foundation and sustainability of a society. According to Fraser, the âcrisis of reproduction â is a consequence of a deeply embedded contradiction between production and reproduction that has its roots in capitalist society.
On the one hand, social reproduction is a condition of possibility for sustained capital accumulation; on the other, capitalismâs orientation to unlimited accumulation tends to destabilize the very processes of social reproduction on which it relies. (Fraser 2016, 100)
Fraser (2016) further argued that capitalism âfree ridesâ on the provision of care mainly outside of the market and without proper compensation in monetary terms. With the development of an industrial society, a gendered division of the family occurred as a result of the separation of economic production , associated with men , and social reproduction , associated with women. Under Fordism, social protection was provided through the family wage as compensation for the unpaid work of women that resulted in the separation of the male breadwinner and the âhousewife.â However, with global capitalism mobilizing women into the labor market in developed as well as developing countries in the post-Fordist era, this model was abandoned or, at any rate, subjected to change. By undermining the reproductive process, this process of capital accumulation has thus proven self-destructive.
The tension between production and reproduction has been evident in East Asiaâthe current growth center of global capitalism âwhich has experienced a rapid decline in total fertility rate and a rise in its aging population. In particular, this tension has become apparent in relation to womenâs work and care responsibilities (Baird et al. 2017). Many studies have shown that East Asian welfare regimes retain characteristics of familialism . Accordingly, the family and women are considered the main care providers by the state and by society, although this phenomenon is not limited to East Asia and has evidenced a shift in recent years (Peng 2012; Kamimura 2015; Uzuhashi 2005). Welfare modeled on familialism that previously supplemented the low coverage of social security systems in East Asia has been changing rapidly, without necessarily resulting in increased coverage (Kamimura 2015).
Other scholars have argued that East Asian welfar e regimes represent a âproductivistâ or âdevelopmentalâ character that results in the subordination of social policy to economic growth (Holliday 2000; Kwon 2005, 2009). The developmentalist state not only facilitates womenâs entry into paid work, but it also upholds monetary calculations as a core value, citing mantras such as âefficiency,â âeffectiveness,â âprogress,â and âproductivity.â This position goes against the very nature of care work, as an increase in âproductivityâ could mean a decrease in the quality of care. Attending to personal needs would be considered âinefficientâ and caring for the elderly who are frail may not bring about any âbreakthroughâ or âinnovation,â phrases often used in the development discourse. During the post-Fordist era, tension between a familialist social provision and a developmentalist welfare regime has become apparent especially in relation to the womenâs work that has been prompted by capitalism and the shrinking labor market. Consequently, women have been placed in a double bind situation, as they are expected to contribute to the economy as well as care for their families. Responding to the declining capacities of families to provide care, social services have expanded to some extent, but states are cautious about increasing their expenditure and maintaining the role of the families (Chan et al. 2014).
Contextualizing Care in East Asia
We will begin by outlining the changing socioeconomic context within which care has become a central discussion topic in East Asia. The first dimension that is of critical concern for East Asian societies is the rapid and unprecedented degree of demographic change relating to low fertility rates and population aging. The newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in Asia, and Japan, all suffer from extremely low total fertility rates that are well below the social reproduction of these nations: Singapore (1.3), Hong Kong (1.2), Taiwan (1.2), Korea (1.2), and Japan (1.4). This trend has been accompanied by the rapid increase in the percentage of elderly populations of these societies: Singapore (12%), Hong Kong (15%), Taiwan (13%), Korea (13%), and Japan (26%) (National Statistics Republic of China (Taiwan) 2016a, b; World Bank 2016). This demographic pattern is more imbalanced than the average of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, whose average total fertility rate and ageing population ratio are 1.7% and 16%, respectively. This demographic imbalance results in significant pressure on the labor market due to labor shortage and impacts on the sustainability of social security systems. Japan already evidences a population decline and might soon be followed by other countries. This will have a profound impact not just on the economy but more importantly on societal organization overall.
The second dimension entails the mobilization of increasing numbers of women entering the labor market to supplement the declining labor force . The transition from industrial to post-industrial societies has opened up new employment opportunities within the service economy, and the participation of women in the labor forc e has drastically increased in the past several decades. Rising education levels among women have contributed to promoting double-income families, and international norms such as the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) have provided moral and legal frameworks for institutionalizing gender equality within the state apparatus. The shift toward a post-Fordist mode of production and womenâs entry into the labor market has meant that whereas the Fordist model of the male breadwinner is no longer tenable, this social chang...