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American Journal of  Economics and 
Business Innovation (AJEBI)

Monetary Valuation of  the Unpaid Care Works and Experiences of  
Some Women in the Upper East Region of  Ghana

Rebecca Ama Koramah Kumi1*, Ernest Owusu2

Volume 2 Issue 1, Year 2023
ISSN: 2831-5588 (Online), 2832-4862 (Print)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54536/ajebi.v2i1.1249
https://journals.e-palli.com/home/index.php/ajebi

Article Information ABSTRACT

Received: January 29, 2023

Accepted: February 21, 2023

Published: February 28, 2023

Most women in Ghana are engaged in many unpaid jobs which are highly undermined in 
monetary terms. This paper aims to study and investigate the valuation of  women unpaid 
care works in the country, with a specific look into women in some selected communities 
in the Nabdam district of  the Upper East region of  Ghana. The study seeks to provide a 
monetary valuation of  the unpaid care works of  the women, to find out the types of  unpaid 
care works the women are engaged in, to determine the relationship between a woman’s 
level of  education and the average time she spends doing unpaid care work and to solicit 
the views of  women, men and children on ways the woman’s life could be empowered 
economically. Personal encounters with the women in the Nabdam district and the realization 
of  most challenges women in that part of  the country faces is the researcher’s motivation for 
undertaking this study. A statistical tool, multiple regression model, as well as descriptive 
statistics was used to analyze and valuate unpaid care work among the selected women. 
The questions that the researcher sought to answer were gathered through the administration 
of  questionnaires. One sample t-test was used to ascertain whether the average monetary 
value from the sample was the population parameter or not so as to adopt it as the true 
valuation of  their care works or reject it. The responses received showed that, the daily 
minimum expected wage for a woman in the area was 1USD Also, the burden of  care 
work rest largely on the shoulders of  women and completing higher education reduces the 
number of  hours women spend doing unpaid care work.

Keywords
Unpaid Care Work, Valuation, 
Empowered, Economically

1  UNICEF, Accra, Ghana
2 Kwame Nkrumah University of  Science and Technology, Ghana
* Corresponding author’s e-mail: rebeccakkumi@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION
In Ghana, most women labor a variety of  menial tasks that 
are severely underpaid, and some even receive praise for 
their efforts. Women are supposedly half  of  the world’s 
population, but despite this, women are clearly the group 
that is most underrepresented and marginalized, according 
to Oxfam (2012). According to research done by the 
UN’s Development Program on Human Development 
(UNDP, 1995), the value of  unpaid work at the global level 
is estimated to be over 16 billion dollars, of  which “11 
billion dollars, a staggering 68.8% represent the invisible 
contribution of  women” (UNDP, 1995).
According to Antonella (2003), unpaid work refers to 
daily domestic chores including cooking for the family, 
cleaning the house, buying groceries and other items, doing 
laundry, taking care of  the kids, and getting gasoline and 
water (firewood). When unpaid work is considered from 
an economics perspective, it lowers labor costs and raises 
profits. The time spent performing unpaid employment 
could potentially be considered “grants” to companies or 
“gifts” from the home to the market (Antonella, 2003).
Caregiving is necessary, significant, and beneficial for 
the social community, which is crucial for maintaining 
society overall and for the operation of  markets (Chopra 
and Sweetman 2014). It includes providing direct care for 
individuals, such as child or dependent adult care, as well 
as household tasks that make providing care for people 
simple, including cleaning, cooking, or gathering water or 
fuel wood. Typically, the time invested in caregiving duties 
is not highly valued. Women of  all ages are prevented 

from working on paid jobs and personal companies due 
to the significant amount of  time they spend providing 
unpaid care. This is demonstrated by the fact that women 
only receive paid market compensation for about one 
third of  the job they do, compared to three quarters for 
men. 2009’s Filth and Blackden Unpaid care entails time 
and effort spent promoting the welfare of  people who are 
emerging from social and contractual obligations, such as 
parenthood and marriage, as well as less formal social 
ties (Elson, 2010). There have been several researches 
in many areas which seeks to investigate the disparities 
among the inequalities that exist among women and men. 
But to the best of  our knowledge, there has not been 
any research work which has been conducted to evaluate 
women’s unremunerated care work in Ghana, especially 
among the women in the northern regions. The study 
sought to provide a monetary valuation on the unpaid 
care works of  some women in the Upper East region 
of  Ghana, using selected communities in the Nabdam 
district as a case study. it also sought to investigate the 
kind of  unpaid care works the women are engaged in; 
to determine the kind of  relationship that exist between 
a woman’s level of  education and the average time she 
spent doing unpaid works.

LITERATURE REVIEW 
General Overview of  Unpaid Work
Elson (2010), referenced by Maestre and Thorpe (2016), 
claims that unpaid employment entails investing time 
and energy into nurturing others as a result of  social or 

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contractual duties, such as marriage and parenthood as 
well as less formal social interactions. In addition to (I), 
it may also include (II), (III), and (IV) unpaid community 
work performed for friends, neighbors, or extended 
family members, as well as work performed out of  a 
sense of  duty for the community, such as volunteer work. 
It may also include (I) the direct care given for the course 
of  human wellbeing, such as care for the child or care 
of  dependent adults in a household or outside the house 
hold. Riana (2009) also remarked that, “Unpaid work” 
includes all work activities that go unremunerated of  
which we can confidently say lacks social recognition.
Unpaid care work includes all tasks required for such 
caregiving, including but not limited to fetching water, 
gathering firewood for fuel, preparing meals, washing 
and cleaning, and cultivating subsistence crops. This is 
according to Blackden and Wodon (2006). The notion 
of  unpaid care work is expanded upon by ActionAid 
(2012 report), a non-governmental organization that 
has started a number of  projects aimed at empowering 
women and reducing poverty. This includes anything 
from sweeping to caring for old people, children, and 
sick people. Even though women provide a large portion 
of  the goods and services that low-income households 
utilize, economic statistics do not take this into account. 
In addition, in order to perform all of  these caregiving 
duties, girls and women must forgo their fundamental 
rights to an education, a suitable place to work, leisure, 
and healthcare. This supports gender stereotypes, 
maintains gender inequality, and keeps women and girls in 
poverty. Men belong in the public sector where they have 
more access to funding, resources, and political influence, 
while women bear a disproportionately large share of  the 
obligation for unpaid caregiving. Elson (2010) argued that 
all of  these tasks, even if  they may not be paid, can be 
considered labor because they require time and effort. By 
contrasting them in their usage, Elson (2000) remarkably 
given some operational description for the unpaid care 
task. The term “unpaid” distinguishes this type of  work 
from paid or reimbursed care given by employees in the 
public and NGO sectors, as well as employees and self-
employed people in the private sector.
According to Elson, the word “care” implies that the 
services rendered nurture other people, but the word 
“labor” implies that these activities cost energy and time 
and are carried out in order to fulfill responsibilities 
(whether contractual or social) (Elson 2000). “Women 
and girls who live in poverty sometimes forget that they 
have a basic human right to education, decent work, and 
leisure time,” said Sulemana, the Upper East Regional 
Programme Manager for ActionAid (2017). Instead, 
because of  the weight of  unpaid care work, women 
devote their entire day to taking care of  household chores.
The amount and distribution of  care work within a 
household, according to Esquivel (2013), also depends on 
the availability of  labor- and time-saving technology, the 
cost and accessibility of  substitutes for doing housework, 
the economies of  scale that result from different 

family structures, the influence of  income on people’s 
decisions to bargain in or out of  housework, and social 
norms. According to Esquivel (2013), the availability of  
infrastructure or services offered by the community, the 
state, or the market also influences the share of  duties that 
fall on the household. 
From the foregoing considerations, it is clear that 
evaluations of  all the care work done by women, whether 
within or outside the home, are required, regardless of  
the recipient of  the services. The value of  and restrictions 
placed on women by unpaid care work cannot be 
overstated. Sulemana (2017) made a significant point 
on this assertion at the launch of  ActionAid’s five-year 
POWER project, which aims to empower 6000 rural 
women in Ghana economically. The POWER project 
also aims to lessen the significant amount of  unpaid 
care work (UCW) that girls and women must perform. 
According to Sulemana, “Policies must acknowledge the 
significant contribution that girls and women make to 
unpaid caregiving while also taking into account the need 
to lessen the burden of  unpaid caregiving and redistribute 
it to include men and other family members, thus laying 
the foundation for true gender equality.”

Valuation of  Unpaid Care Work
According to Millington (2000), valuation is the art or 
science of  determining the value of  an item or service 
of  a particular interest in a property at a specific time, 
taking into account all of  the property’s features as well as 
all of  the market’s underlying economic factors, including 
the variety of  alternative investments being taken into 
consideration. Millington (2000) defines valuation as the 
art of  mathematically expressing judgments in order to 
determine the worth of  a specific stake in a specific piece 
of  property at a certain period. The definition of  “work 
value” is the notions of  what is desirable that people have 
with reference to their work activity. It can be seen as 
a special application of  the generic concept of  “value” 
(Williams, 1968).
Williams (2009), further asserts that, the value for work 
reflect the individual’s awareness of  the condition he 
seeks from the work situation, and they regulate his 
actions in pursuit of  that condition. They thus refer 
to general attitudes regarding the meaning that an 
individual attach to the work role as distinguished from 
his satisfaction with that role. For example, values should 
be differentiated from expectations, which indicates one’s 
beliefs about what will occur in the future; but what is 
expected may not correspond to what is wanted and, 
conversely, what is valued may or may not correspond to 
what is expected.  A value presupposes that an awareness 
will be created at some level of  the object or condition 
sought while a need does not.
According to a publication made by United Nations 
Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE, 2017), 
it is difficult placing monetary values on activities 
carried out within the household, this is because such 
care activities are not straightforward since the work is 

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unpaid and often produces intangible services which are 
difficult to quantify. There arises the question about the 
borderline with household service work and leisure. It is 
to some extent difficult to tell if  household works are 
seen as chores or leisure. Some people would regard for 
instance taking the children to the park as a chore while 
others see it as leisure. Although care works may go paid, 
lots of  them are performed unpaid by wives, siblings, 
mothers, girlfriends, sisters, and daughters, which are 
all not included in the calculation of  national accounts. 
Women invest great time doing unpaid care works which 
extensively impede the earning potentials. As Falth and 
Blackden (2009) observed, women globally have merely 
one third of  all their works accounting paid market 
activities whereas their male counterparts have third of  
a quarter. A World Bank report in 2011 confirms that 
care works frustrate the ability of  women to invest in 
educational, social, economic and political opportunities. 
Even though, valuation of  unpaid work seems 
problematic, some countries have started to value 
these activities through a Household Satellite Account, 
which provides important information on the economy 
and society. However, there is currently no general 
agreement on the methodological choices in resolving the 
measurement challenges (Eurostat, 2003). Economists 
have however argued and have long pointed out the 
pitfalls that could arise when unpaid household work is 
excluded from macroeconomic analyses. The challenge 
that arises when economist try to provide a tangent 
mechanism through which unpaid work could be valued 
is the issue of  methodology. Till date, there is very little 
publication available to support market systems programs 
to understand and address unpaid care work (Maestre 
and Thorpe, 2016). Eisler (2007), also remarked that, 
the inability to give tangibility and value to the vital tasks 
of  caregiving in economic measurement confirms the 
general world view of  how lightly we regard these all-
essential care work. 
The issue among countries in sub-Saharan Africa is pretty 
worse since no effort at all have been made to quantify 
all the hours women spend in doing unpaid care work 
and talk of  adding it to the macro-economic index. For 
instance, to my best knowledge, no research has been 
conducted in Ghana which will focus on quantifying 
the numerous efforts made by women to maintain and 
manage the home. But it will be imperative and of  much 
importance to the economy of  Ghana if  attention is 
paid and valuation is made for all the unpaid care work 
of  the women. It should be noted that, handling the 
extensive unpaid care works women undertake is a crucial 
underlying ingredient that will contribute to poverty 
reduction in Ghana and especially in the upper east 
region of  Ghana.

Gender and Care Work
Blackden and Wodon (2006) again observed that the 
greater load of  care works, which actually is essential 
for daily life sustenance and survival, rest much more on 

women than men. That is to say, women are the people 
who undertake most of  the care work in the household 
which goes unpaid. The large amount of  care work is 
done by mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, and their 
services are underrepresented or invisible in national 
accounts which contributes to the macro-economics of  
the country. 
The rampant and bias gender division of  labour, even in 
care work is deeply rooted in gender inequalities’ (World 
Bank et al. 2009), restraining the income of  women, their 
health, education, leadership and other pertinent areas 
of  life. The unpaid care work programme calls for more 
gender responsive public services that help to reduce 
and redistribute women’s unpaid care work. In this way 
women involved in this programme will be part of  the 
five million people living in poverty demanding greater 
state accountability (ActionAid, 2011). The ActionAid 
report on women Unpaid care work further states that, in 
most societies especially in developing countries, cooking, 
cleaning, taking care of  other family members, fetching 
firewood and water and all forms of  unpaid care work are 
seen as women’s work. While the features of  their lives 
differ greatly across contexts, it is girls and women who 
perform the majority of  unpaid care work. 
Men spend more hours on average doing paid work. 
If  both total paid and unpaid hours are combined, 
women work more overall. For example, the ActionAid 
programme ‘Making Care Visible’ in Nepal and Kenya 
found that women are working 1.4 hours for every 1 hour 
worked by men (Budlender and Moussié, 2013). Heavy 
and unbalanced care responsibilities contribute to time 
poverty, limit mobility and poor health and well-being 
of  the people who spend their time undertaking these 
services. They undermine the rights of  carers, limit their 
opportunities, capabilities and choices and often restrict 
them to low-skilled, irregular or informal employment 
(Chopra 2015; Kabeer, et al. 2011; Razavi 2007). In 
October 2013, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme 
Poverty and Human Rights reported that ‘heavy and 
unequal care responsibilities are a major barrier to gender 
equality and to women’s equal enjoyment of  human 
rights’ (Carmona, 2013).

Women and Unpaid Care Work 
Unpaid care work has adverse effects on the women who 
undertake them. The effect is to undermine progress 
towards gender equality and to entrench a disproportionate 
vulnerability to poverty (Carmona, 2013). Bibler and 
Elaine (2013), also stated that; globally, women perform 
the greater unpaid care works as compare to men. 
Unpaid care activities can restrict women’s involvement 
in the labour market, it also affects overall productivity, 
economic growth and poverty reduction. This may result 
in crippling the financial independence of  the women. 
A study conducted by the United Nations Research 
Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) analyzed 
some data on working hours (both paid and unpaid) 
from six countries and found that women do noticeably 

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more work than men in all cases. On average, women do 
between 174% (South Africa) and 194% (India) of  the 
work done by men (Budlender, 2008). This work is often 
undercounted and undervalued because it is carried out 
simultaneously with paid and productive work, or when 
the career is also studying, eating, resting or socializing. 
There has been increasing international development 
policies to recognize the timely importance to uplift 
the labour market involvement first by curbing the 
predominant gender inequalities that hamper their 
employment potentials (UNECA 2012: 7; Tinker 1990). 
There has therefore been an “adoption of  prominent 
rights-based conventions, including the Beijing 
Declaration, the Convention on the Elimination of  all 
Forms of  Discrimination against” Women (CEDAW), 
“and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human 
and People’s Rights on the rights of  women in Africa, 
demonstrates growing international consensus outlawing 
discrimination and contributing to a movement that 
addresses the legal, social, and educational barriers 
restricting women’s employment” (Tinker and Zuckerman 
forthcoming). 
All these efforts are geared at balancing women labour 
market and calling for the recognition of  the numerous 
unpaid care work given by women. Positive advances have 
been made though there still remains a lot to be done. 
Women are still the large majority who are underpaid and 
less protected workers globally (Rania, 2009). In other 
cases, unpaid care work limits women’s engagement in 
politics, schooling and medical works and appointments, 
skill honing, or artistic exploits. It also reduces time spent 
for leisure, self-care and sleep (Esquivel, 2006). Unpaid 
care work of  women to some extent hinders their ability to 
be engaged fully in paid works as compared to men. In the 
case of  Ghana, there is a wide gap between the numbers 
of  men who are gainfully employed as compared to the 
women. Estimates from the 2000 and 2010 Population 
and Housing censuses indicate a rate of  10.7% and 6.3% 
respectively for females compared with 10.1 per cent 
and 5.4 per cent for males. The higher unemployment 
rate among women than men in recent times have been 
attributed to the escalating drive of  women to engage in 
market work reflecting in the consistent increase in the 
labour force engagement level of  women against the 
backdrop of  fewer employment opportunities (Baah 
Boateng, 2012). 
The United Nations Women’s World Report also 
augmented the efforts of  the women (2015); according 
to the report women work as much as men, if  not more. 
When both paid and unpaid work such as household 
chores and caring for children are considered, women 
work longer hours than men. An average of  30 minutes 
a day longer in developed countries and 50 minutes in 
developing countries. Gender differentials in hours spent 
on domestic work have narrowed over time, mainly as a 
result of  less time spent on household chores by women 
and, to a smaller extent, by an increase in time spent 
on childcare by men. Many efforts have been made by 

various and successive governments to empower women 
into financial independence of  the women. However, the 
gender disparities in poverty are rooted in inequalities 
in access to economic resources. In many countries, 
women continue to be economically dependent on their 
spouses especially in the Upper East of  Ghana. Lower 
proportions of  women than men have their own cash 
income from labour as a result of  the unequal division of  
paid and unpaid work (UNWR, 2015).

METHODOLOGY
This study used quantitative research approach targeted 
at getting the required information that are aligned with 
the objectives it aims to realize. A total of  457 people 
were interview for this study which comprised some 278 
men and 179 children. The sampling technique employed 
for the women was simple random sampling where every 
woman in the respective communities under study had 
an equal chance of  being selected. It was done without 
replacement where every individual of  the communities 
had an equal chance (1/N) of  being included in the 
sample. After the first individual is chosen, she is no 
longer replaced in the stratum. The second woman is 
selected from the remaining (N − 1) members of  the 
local community so that each individual of  the (N − 1) 
members of  the stratum has an equal (1/(N-1)) chance 
of  being included in the study. The procedure is repeated 
until the nth individual of  the sample is chosen with 
probability(1/(N-n+1)). Their husbands and men as well 
as children however, were sampled using the convenient 
sampling method, where any matured man, husbands and 
children encountered in the households were included 
into the study when they consent to do so.   

One Sample T-Test
To provide valuation for the women’s unpaid care works, 
their mean or average daily minimum expected wage 
was computed. One sample t-test was used to ascertain 
whether this average value was the population parameter 
or not so as to adopt it as the true valuation of  their care 
works or reject it.

Hypothesis
There is the null hypothesis (H0 ) and the alternative 
hypothesis (H1 ) for the one sample t-test. The alternative 
assumes that there exist some differences between the 
hypothesized population mean (µ) and the comparison 
value (12.46) whereas the null hypothesis assumes no 
such differences exist.
null hypothesis , H0   µ= 12.46  ..……………....1
alternative hypothesis, H1  µ ≠ 12.46…..……….2
We will reject the null hypothesis if  our P-Value from the 
test run is less than 0.05 and would have to conclude that 
valuation provided cannot be the population parameter 
for the sample under study. If  the P-Value is however, 
greater than 0.05, the null hypothesis will be accepted 
and the valuation will be the actual parameter for the 
population.

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Multiple Linear Regression Model
The study also seeks to determine the relationship between 
the women’s level of  education and the number of  hours 
spent per day doing unpaid care works. It employed the 
multiple linear regression model in this regard since level 
of  education must be separated into different factions or 
variables each with its own dichotomous set of  dummy 
variables to fit the model. 

Theory For Multiple Linear Regression
In multiple linear regression, there are p explanatory 
variables, and the relationship between the dependent 
variable and the explanatory variables is represented by 
the following equation:
 Y=β0+β1 X1+β2 X2+⋯+βP XP+ℇ………………..3
Where:
B0 is the constant term
B1 to BP are the coefficients relating the p explanatory 
variables to the variables of  interest. So, multiple linear 
regression can be thought of  as an extension of  simple 
linear regression, where there are p explanatory variables, 
or simple linear regression can be thought of  as a special 
case of  multiple linear regression, where p=1. The term 
‘linear’ is used because in multiple linear regression we 
assume that y is directly related to a linear combination 
of  the explanatory variables. The significant regression 
estimates are then used to explain the relationship 
between number of  hours spent doing care works and 
ones’ highest level of  education.

Chi-Square Goodness of  Fit Test
Finally, the study employed the Chi-Square goodness of  

fit test as there were open-ended responses which were 
coded and entered into the SPSS software. To determine 
these responses were not just random replies from only 
the sample under study but replies which could be used as 
a generalizing for the entire population, goodness of  fit 
test was done in this regard. Anytime the P-Value is less 
than 0.05 alpha value we reject the null hypothesis and 
can significantly conclude that the responses can be what 
the general population will be holding.  

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 
Out of  the 400 questionnaires sent to the Nabdam 
district, a significant 382 were filled. Among the 5 local 
communities, 153 responses were recorded from Pelungu, 
78 from Damolgo-Tindongo, 75 from Nangodi, 53 were 
from Sakoti and some 23 from Damolgo. These were 
entered into the SPSS software where analysis was done. 
Below are the findings. 

Background Characteristics
The study interviewed 382 women whose ages range 
from 18 to 91, 278 men, from 18 to 79 years old and a 
total number of  197 children and teenagers who were 13 
to 17 years of  age. Table 4.1 below gives detailed findings 
of  the women under study.

Children and Dependents
In exception of  59 of  the women interviewed, all the 
women had given birth to at least a child. The total 
number of  children among all these women is 1095, with 
a mean of  2.87. Some of  the children were as young as 
5 months old while others are as old as 63 years. The 

Table 4. 1: Demographic data of  Respondents 
Category Responses Number=382 Percent (%)
Age 18 – 27 120 31.4

28 – 37 105 27.5
38 – 47 87 22.8
48 – 57 41 10.7
58 – 67 15 3.9
68 – 77 12 3.1
78 – 87 2 0.3

Level of  Education None 148 38.8
Primary 72 18.8
JHS 78 20.4
SHS 44 11.5
Diploma 27 7.1
1st Degree 13 3.4

Employment Status Unemployed 182 47.5
Employed 172 45.0
Student 28 7.3

Employer Type Private or and self 149 39.0
Government 73 19.1
Not applicable 160 41.9

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Marital Status Single 90 23.6
Married, Spouse Present 264 69.1
Married, Spouse Absent 9 2.4
Divorce 3 0.8
Widow 16 4.2

Marriage Type Single marriage 166 43.5
Polygynous marriage 112 29.3
Not applicable 104 27.2

Polygynous Wife Rank 1st Wife 47 12.3
2nd Wife 66 17.3
3rd Wife 6 1.6
Not applicable 263 68.8

Source: author’s field data, 2023

average number of  dependents on the women is 2.75.

Unpaid Care Works
In determining the type of  unpaid care works performed 
by these women, they were first of  all asked whether 
they were being forced to do these works or not. 64 
said they were forced while 314 were not forced to do 
any such works but did them out of  responsibility or 
necessity.  Almost all the women interviewed consented 
that they do diverse unpaid care works in and or outside 
their households. 8 of  them, representing 2.1%, though 
as strange as it seems, reported they do no such works. 
This can be attributed to some being 2nd or 3rd wives in 
polygynous marriages, being a student in SHS or other 

factors. Below is the detailed analysis of  their unpaid care 
works in all its dynamics.

Unpaid Care Works in The House
In the house, we categorized unpaid care works under 
Unpaid Childcare, Unpaid House Works and Unpaid 
Senior Care. Out of  the 382 women who participated, 
78.5% undertake childcare in the house while 21.5% 
do not. 72% of  those who do are the main or primary 
persons who take care of  the children while 7.6% are 
secondary care takers of  the children like matured siblings 
and sisters in the house. The chat below shows various 
groups of  childcare works and the number of  women 
undertaking them.

Figure 1: Women and Care Work Types

Unpaid House Work
The results showed that, 95% of  the women do various 
unpaid house works. Some of  the pertinent ones are 
cooking for the house, 69.6%, sweeping the house, 
69.1%, weeding the house, 54.7%, fetching water, 61.5%, 
and fetching fire wood for cooking in the house, 51.6%. 
Thus, the findings resonate with similar list of  unpaid 
carework identified by Antonella (2003). Interestingly, the 
study found out that, the women were not only limited 
to doing these unpaid careworks. The women were still 
expected to support their husbands with farm work after 
performing all these duties. One respondent remarked that 

“I am married with four children, and I have a responsibility to 
look after my family. I clean, cook, collect water, and take care 
of  all household duties. In addition, I help my spouse with other 
tasks and weed the land. Men are expected to work on the farm in 
my culture, and it is very frowned upon for them to be seen doing 
housework” (Field Interview, 2022).

Other types of  Unpaid care work the women are 
engaged in 
The study further sought to investigate some of  the 
additional works the women are engaged in which they 
are not paid. they were asked to indicate whether they 

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Figure 2: Women and Unpaid House works

are engaged in taking care of  senior members of  their 
families, they undertake volunteer works among others. 
the results indicated that, the Nabdam district is heavily 
populated with lots of  aged men and women. They are 
termed senior persons for the purpose of  this study. Out 
of  the women who participated in the study, 222 (58.1%) 

have at least, one senior person under their care. The 
senior persons totaled 407, 66.3% of  them being females 
whereas 33.7% are males. Their ages are from 60 years to 
105 years old. The table below shows the diverse unpaid 
care works these women perform for the senior persons.
From the results obtained, 108 of  the women, making 

Table 2: Unpaid Senior Care
Type Of  Senior Care Done Number Of  Women Undertaking Care Percentage (%)
Bathing And Dressing 111 29.1
Cooking 200 52.4
Taking To Hospital 90 23.6
Feeding 130 34.0

28.3%, at the time of  this study were doing unpaid sick 
person cares. these people were responsible for taking 
care of  their sick relatives with any pay. These sick people 
were either brothers, husbands, in-laws, mothers, fathers 

or even friends. the results further indicated that, some 
67 of  the women, 17.5%, do different kinds of  volunteer 
works. The chart below shows the volunteer works some 
stated and the number who undertake them.

Table 3: Unpaid Care Type and Number of  Women Doing Them
Unpaid Care Number Percentage (%)
Childcare 105 27.5
Senior care 74 19.3
Sick care 63 16.5

Time Spent Doing Unpaid Care Works
Within 24 hours, the average time spent by the women in 
doing these unpaid care works is 5.86 hours or 5 hours, 
52 minutes. Most of  them however, spend over 6 hours 
per day doing unpaid care works. The number of  women 

and their various estimated time spent doing unpaid care 
works are tabulated below. Table 4 Number of  women 
and estimated time spent within 24 hours doing unpaid 
care works

Table 4 : Number of  women and estimated time spent within 24 hours doing unpaid care works
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid 1 hour 2 .5 .5 .5
2 hours 10 2.6 2.6 3.1
3 hours 37 9.7 9.7 12.8
4 hours 28 7.3 7.3 20.2
5 hours 56 14.7 14.7 34.8
6 hours 104 27.2 27.2 62.0
7 hours 91 23.8 23.8 85.9

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8 hours 32 8.4 8.4 94.2
9 hours and above 22 5.8 5.8 100.0
Total 382 100.0 100.0

Relationship Between Level of  Education and Number 
of  Hours Spent on Unpaid Care Works.
A multiple regression model was built to determine the 
relation between ones’ highest educational level and 
hours spent per day on unpaid care works. There were 
four (4) predictive dichotomous dummy variables derive 
from education level to fit the multiple regression model.

Education Level Dummy Variables

Type equeation here. 

The model form will thus be;
Y= β0+βPRIMXPRIM+βJHSXJHS+βSHSXSHS+βterXter   ..….4

From the output above, there is no significant difference 
in the number of  hours spent per day by an illiterate 
woman, a woman whose highest education is primary and 
those who merely finished schooling at the Junior 

Table 5: SPSS Multiple Regression Output
Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized 
Coefficients

Standard id 
Coefficients

T Sig.

B Std. Error Beta
1 (Constant) 6.365 .129 49.215 .000

Primary Dummy Variable -.198 .226 -.045 -.877 .381
JHS Dummy Variable -.352 .220 -.083 -1.599 .111
SHS Dummy Variable -2.001 .270 -.373 -7.408 .000
Tertiary Dummy Variable -1.540 .280 -.275 -5.492 .000

Dependent Variable: estimated time within 24 hours spent doing unpaid care works

High level. However, a woman who had Senior High 
education (SHS) spends 2.001 hours less than an illiterate 
woman on unpaid house work per day. Also, a woman 
who attains to tertiary level of  education spends 1.540 
hours less than one who had no schooling at all on unpaid 
care works. It could be inferred from the results from 
the study that, education played an important role in the 
general life experiences of  the women and the types of  
unpaid carework the are engaged in, and by extension, 

the number of  hours they spend in performing the 
duties. Unfortunately, majority of  the women who took 
part of  the study had no education and largely relied on 
agriculture for their survival.

Assumption of  Homoscedasticity
Detecting Homoscedasticity
A horizontal straight line drawn through the zero point 
will show the residuals are approximately evenly spread 

Figure 4: P-P Plot

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around the straight line. The variance of  the residuals is 
thus the same, hence homoscedasticity is present.
Assumption of  Normality From the normal probability 

plot above also, all the points fall approximately right 
on the straight line. The distribution can thus be said to 
be approximately normal. Thus, the final fitted model 

Figure 5: Normality Plot

becomes;
Y=6.365-2.001XSHS- 1.540Xter….…………………5

Valuation of  Unpaid Care Works
The National Daily Minimum Wage (NDMW) in 
Ghana as from January, 1st 2018, has been 0.76USD 
(graphiconline.com) This is merely the rule of  thumb 
as many Ghanaians earn far less than this NDMW while 
others receive way above it mostly based on their job 
description and portfolios. The women were interviewed 
on their views on the minimum amount they would 
expect to be paid per day based on the various care works 
they do. Their average expected minimum daily wage was 
1USD. 

One Sample T-Test
For the above average minimum value to be accepted 
as the valuation for the women’s minimum daily wage, 
one sample t-test is performed to ascertain that it is the 
population parameter.
Hypothesis:
Null hypothesis,H0 ∶ µ = 12.46…………………6
Alternative hypothesis,H1 ∶ µ ≠12.46…………...7
From the above table, we fail to reject the null hypothesis 
at a P-Value of  0.998>0.05 Alpha value and conclude that 
the average daily minimum wage of  1USD per woman is 
the valuation of  the general population. This culminates 
into an average monthly wage of  30 x 1USD = 29.73 per 
woman. See table below for different periods and valuated 

Table 6: One Sample test SPSS output
One-Sample Test

Test Value = 12.46
T Df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of  the 

Difference
Lower Upper

Amount per hour expected 
to be paid for care work

.003 381 .998 .001 -.55 .55

amounts measured. Thus, Ghana loses a whopping sum 
of  356.71USD on the average for all the unquantified 
and unpaid works that a woman in only Nabdam district 

of  the upper East region does. Do such an estimate for 
all the districts in the country and indeed Ghana will be 
beyond aids. 

Table 7:  Different Valuation of  Women Unpaid Care Works
Period Amount Valuation Per Woman (Ghc) Amount Valuation of  the 382 Sample (Ghc)
Daily 12.46 4,759.72
Monthly 373.80 142,791.60
Yearly 4,485.60 1,713,499.20

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DISCUSSION
In many respects, the study has shown that women play 
many different duties in their homes, but males do not 
value these actions. Many of  the participants in the study 
who provided feedback noted that they should not be 
compensated for the unpaid caregiving they do because 
it is part of  their responsibilities as wives. The women 
valued their unpaid caregiving at almost $1 per day, which 
is significant. While some may view the aforementioned 
sum as tiny and barely sufficient to support a whole 
family, the women could not earn that much from 
their regular jobs if  they were employed due to their 
education level. The majority of  the women were poor 
and had limited access to basic socioeconomic amenities, 
according to observations made by the researchers during 
data collecting. The results support (Carmona, 2013)’s 
claim that the consequence is to impede the advancement 
of  gender equality and to perpetuate a disproportionate 
vulnerability to poverty.

CONCLUSION
The study sought to examine the monetary valuation of  
unpaid careworks of  women in the Nabdam District in 
the Upper West Region in Ghana. While studies have 
primarily focused on unpaid caregiving by women, this 
paper’s findings show that economic, social, cultural, and 
demographic factors interact to affect the type, nature, 
and hours of  employment that women perform. Women 
unpaid carework continuous to be a major issue as little 
or no particular attention is given to it, especially in the 
Upper East region where the study was conducted. In 
retrospect of  the results of  this study based on both the 
quantitative and qualitative data collected from the field, 
it can be concluded that, 
• The burden of  care works in the house rest on the 

shoulders of  women.
• Completing Senior High School and higher education 

reduces the number of  hours women spent doing unpaid 
care works as they are likely to be employed in other 
sectors.
• Most of  the men see the unpaid carework as the duties 

of  the women and hence they don’t need any reward for 
that.
It is clear from the study that the efforts of  the majority 
of  women in Ghana, and especially in the Nabdam 
district, are severely undervalued. The majority of  the 
job that women do is based on unfair gender roles that 
are primarily created by the socio-religious dynamics of  
the population. The numerous unpaid caregiving tasks 
carried out by women must, however, receive important 
attention because they have the potential to improve their 
socioeconomic status.

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