![]() This was the tenor of a 2021 Global Women’s Strike letter to President Biden and vice president Kamala Harris, urging them to provide Child Tax Credits for mothers and other primary caregivers. “I wish it didn’t, but it does, and if cash does have value, I want it - and I want everyone who is doing the same work as me, or similar work to build up society and nature … to have it, too.” “Cash has value,” says James (slated to give a keynote speech at the upcoming End Women’s Poverty: A Guaranteed Care Income for People and Planet conference in Philadelphia). But while it’s always a good strategy to fight for "what’s on offer," such as tax credits, she says, what's most crucial is pushing for benefits of cash, as opposed to social services. In discussing what such a "care income" might include, James explains, it's important to know what the people of a community value - land as opposed to cash, for example. It not only enriches you, but it enriches the value of what you are doing.” “If you get remuneration in some form because of the work you are doing, you transform not only the nature of that work, but also the social value that is placed on it… That's what money does. “When women have money of their own, they are more autonomous and can make more decisions, and I think better ones,” James tells Yahoo Life. When people are forced out of the workforce in order to raise their children, says James, they are economically disadvantaged and tied to others - like a partner - in order to survive, which, even in healthy partnerships, is a deprivation of economic freedom. ![]() It’s an issue that women, disproportionately the world’s caregivers, are at the center of. ![]() James went on to build the international, multiracial network that now coordinates the Global Women's Strike, campaigning for a "care income" for all caregivers. The radical idea of wages for housework was first proposed by a woman named Selma James - in 1972, at the third National Women's Liberation Conference in Manchester, England. It's why many people are working to shift our culture in order to get parents paid for their very real work. Instead, a parent's labor is generally not considered real work, but a duty - one that doesn’t come with a salary. With those roles in mind, in fact, data from job search database Adzuna calculated that for all the jobs parents do, their annual salaries should be roughly $185,060. Parents, every day, assume the role of nurse, chauffeur, personal shopper, housekeeper, chef and more. Should parents be paid for caregiving? Here's why it's important.
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