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Myrtle Witbooi was just 18-years-old when she convened the first ever meeting of domestic workers in Cape Town, South Africa. It was 1965, during the apartheid years of racial segregation, and Witbooi’s actions carried great risk. “We weren’t supposed to disobey the people we were working for,” Witbooi, now 74, tells TIME in an interview over the phone. “Still today, I can’t tell you how I did it, but I did disobey. I actually fought my way and became a spokesperson for domestic workers”.
Domestic workers make up just one part of a global group of 2.1 billion workers who comprise the so-called informal economy, encompassing countless trades, enterprises and work that is not protected or regulated by the state. Informal workers, from garment makers to street vendors, provide the foundation of the global economy, accounting for more than 60% of the global workforce.
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Yet, despite the range in geographies, cultures, and trades that the informal economy spans, one thing unites workers within it—they are mostly women. Globally, 58% of women who work are engaged in informal employment, a figure that rises to 92% in developing countries.
The pandemic has hit informal workers particularly hard. When many governments responded to the crisis with economic aid, most of these workers were overlooked. According to a study by the International Labour Organization (ILO), twice as many workers in the informal economy fell into poverty during the first month of the pandemic compared to pre-COVID-19 times.
In response, philanthropic organization the Ford Foundation has announced a five-year, $25 million grant to women-led informal worker networks, in an effort to support a global movement calling on governments to invest in protections for informal workers.
“We know there can be no global recovery without informal workers,” Sarita Gupta, director of the Ford Foundation’s Future of Work(ers) program, said in a statement. “This grant recognizes…
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Source : time
