‘I Laba Yu’: Campaign for housework equality in Tacloban

“Sharing housework with your partner is the best example that you can show and teach to your children, and to express your love to your husband or wife,” said celebrity influencer and care work advocate, Camille Pratts. (File Photo: Camille Pratts/Instagram)

TACLOBAN CITY — The campaign for equal distribution of housework between men and women was launched Friday in this city as part of the Women’s Month celebration.

The campaign, dubbed “I Laba Yu”, encourages husbands and wives to share household chores and responsibilities, countering the false notion that housework is solely a woman’s job.

The launching coincided with the mass wedding ceremony at the city’s convention center.

“Sharing housework with your partner is the best example that you can show and teach to your children, and to express your love to your husband or wife,” said celebrity influencer and care work advocate, Camille Pratts.

The 2017 Household Care Survey in the Visayas and Mindanao, which was conducted by the non-government organization Oxfam, showed that women spend an average of 4.5 to 6.5 hours in household chores daily, which is six times higher than men.

It also said that women spend a total of 11 to 12 hours of elderly or child care, which is two to four hours times longer than men.

“Women disproportionately carry the burden of unpaid care work. It is time that we resurface and recognize it as a shared responsibility by everyone. Equality should begin at home,” Oxfam Philippine Country Director Maria Rosario Felizco said.

Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement Visayas-Mindanao Area Manager Dondon Agaton said the “long hours spent in unpaid care work hold back women and girls from pursuing opportunities in education, employment, political engagement, and leisure activities.”

It can also negatively impact their health and well-being, which deteriorate incrementally with increasing hours of care provided.

“The issue of recognizing, valuing, and redistributing unpaid care work is not just a household concern. The government plays a large role in ensuring access to social protection policies, public infrastructure, and equipment that can lessen time spent on unpaid chores,” Felizco added.