This is a long read but really worth a read.
This article talks about the care women give in all walks of life. Their duties of care include the activities of cooking, cleaning, washing, looking after children, caring for the elderly, sick and disabled relatives in their family, as well as attending to the needs of people in their neighbourhood through community kitchens, childcare groups and support networks.
This article mentions that if women’s unpaid care work was given a monetary value, it would exceed 40% of GDP in some countries – that is more than entire sectors like manufacturing or transport. Every day, women around the world do 16 billion hours of unpaid care work. Women do more than half of the world’s work (52%) and nearly half that work goes unpaid. Unpaid care work is the daily labour that keeps households, families and communities running – work that is mostly done by women without pay.
This article says that if women stopped working and went on an unpaid work strike, communities would grind to a halt, and economies would collapse. A global emergency would unfold because this work is so essential that life simply cannot function without it. Social norms still cast care as “women’s work". In homes, classrooms and workplaces, those expectations shape choices: who stays at home when a child is sick, who takes the part-time or more flexible job, or who is praised for being a “helpful daughter”. On average, women undertake 2.5 times more hours every day on unpaid care work than men. Girls learn this early and provide 160 million more hours every day on unpaid care and domestic work than boys. Globally, 45% of working-age women are not included in the labour market because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared to just 5% of men.
Women hold most paid care jobs too – as nannies, domestic workers, live-in carers, nurses and childcare workers – but these jobs are often low-paid and precarious without the benefits of healthcare and paid leave. Around 80% of domestic workers are women, many of them migrants, often excluded from labour laws and hence, susceptible to abuse and exploitation.
As per this article, motherhood often marks a turning point in a woman’s earnings. In Europe, 60% of the gender pay gap is linked to motherhood: not because women lose ambition, but because they cut back paid hours or leave paid work altogether when childcare is unaffordable and parental leave policies aren’t adequate. In the UK, one in three mothers with children under five has left paid work unwillingly due to her caregiving responsibilities. Every extra hour of unpaid care work shrinks a woman’s chance for paid work by 38% and higher education by 34%. When care work is not counted, women’s time, talent, and income shrink. It limits the hours women have for learning, leisure, and rest. Persistent time poverty narrows many women’s choices and opportunities, resulting in lost earnings that have lifelong consequences for women.
Long hours of housework and caring for others, with little rest or recognition, leave many women stressed, exhausted and stretched to breaking point in what’s often called Caregiver Burnout. This occurs due to the prolonged mental and physical load they carry as much of their daily work is physically and emotionally demanding. For too long, care work has been dismissed as “women’s work”, when, in truth, it is a shared responsibility and the work that makes all other work possible. When men share care, families get more time together. Sharing care between parents supports children’s wellbeing and gives each parent time for work, rest, and for self-care. But until both parents can take time to care without stigma or penalty, women will continue to carry an unequal share, and men will keep missing out on one of life’s most meaningful connections.
I've just blogged about a few points from this lengthy article that has been very informative with its data analysis. If you need to know more details, please click below.
FAQs: What is unpaid care work and how does it power the economy?
https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-what-is-unpaid-care-work-and-how-does-it-power-the-economy
