#ShareTheWork Is Intersectional
by Kayla Arradondo and Zhong Chen Tan
Whether it is at work, at home, in culture, or in public, we all share the responsibility of advancing equality and inclusion. Our #ShareTheWork activation draws attention to this responsibility, and calls on everyone to share the burden of essential forms of physical, mental, emotional, and activist labor. These endeavors often go uncompensated monetarily, but are vital to the functioning of our society. We have to ask: What are the demographics of those who shoulder the burden of such unpaid work?
At home, #ShareTheWork includes tasks such as household chores, caregiving for children, and caring for elders. UN Women estimates that, globally, the average woman spends 10 years on unpaid domestic and care tasks over her lifetime, whereas the average man spends 4 years. (Try out this Unpaid Care Explainer from UN Women to calculate the approximate time you’ll spend on unpaid domestic and care tasks over your lifetime, and see how you compare with this global average). Counting both unpaid and paid work together, women work longer hours overall than men.
At work, #ShareTheWork includes an equitable distribution of unpaid work such as team-building events, planning birthday parties and office functions. It also includes advocating for diversity & inclusion in a company’s policies, programs, and practices. UN Women also recommends offering universal paid maternity and paternity leave, allowing parents to #ShareTheWork of domestic care at home.
In culture, #ShareTheWork takes myriad forms. It means advocating and actively working towards changing language norms. It means not only consuming only more content about women and people of color, but specifically, consuming more content created and produced by women and people of color, so that what you’re consuming is a reflection, not an interpretation. There are many ways to influence our culture; it’s on each of us to think critically and get creative about the ways we can influence and effect change.
In public, #ShareTheWork includes the duty of intersectional activism. The work of promoting diversity should not fall on underrepresented groups. The work of dismantling structural inequalities should not fall on the disadvantaged people. The work of ending discrmination should not fall on those who are discriminated against.
Speaking of allyship, lawyer and board member of LGBT Bar Adeel Mangi stated that “no embattled minority community should be standing alone today. The issues at stake are too fundamental for our country and our identity as a nation. Only by speaking with one voice can we protect each other.” Oftentimes it is the minority group fighting for their own rights, and while that work is extremely important, the burden should not be on the oppressed group to relieve their own oppression.
The Black Lives Matter movement is one that is having growing support across nearly all demographics. While that is extremely important, this work doesn’t only need to be done by black people. While there has been increased allyship, there is still a lot of work to do. Mainly, the work that non-black POC and white people need to do has increased. Black lives are being taken by racist police and being dismissed by the government and those in power, and although the movement is Black-led, it is not the duty of Black people to prove that their lives have meaning. In particular, white people need to step up in anti-racist actions and commitments to advancing justice.
Just as it is not only a woman's job to take care of household work, it is not the job of minority groups to end their own oppression. In every category, the “dominant group” - men, white people, heterosexual people, cisgender people - need to step up and significantly contribute to the important work that is going on. Creating justice and advancing equality is much bigger than any one individual or any one identity.
Let’s get to it and #ShareTheWork.