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what_does_unpaid_care_work_cost_society

Sepúlveda Carmona’s report explicitly draws attention to human rights violations that arise from the unequal burden of care. She argues that:

The unequal distribution, intensity and lack of recognition of unpaid care work undermines the dignity of women caregivers, obstructs their enjoyment of several human rights on an equal basis with men, undermines progress towards gender equality and entrenches their disproportionate vulnerability to poverty across their lifetime.

When the state fails to adequately regulate, fund or provide care, the burden shifts to families who have to make their own arrangements. Investing their time and toil in unpaid care work results in significant financial and opportunity costs for women and girls, which perpetuate poverty. Time is money, but unpaid domestic care workers have neither time nor money – they bear the costs of care:

  • Lower labour force participation: Care work prevents many women from participating in the paid labour force.A recent study on selected Latin American countries shows that over half of women aged 20 to 24 stated their responsibilities at home as the main reason for not seeking a job in the labour market. The number of women who are in this group is higher than the number in the education system - 30.1% compared to 15.9% (ECLAC, 2007). Indeed, due to domestic responsibilities, 30% of Latin American women in urban areas and 41% of women in rural areas have no income of their own (Observatorio de Igualdad de Género de América Latina y el Caribe, 2012).
  • Lower personal incomes and poorer quality of employment:Women and girls that do enter the labour force often do so without remuneration. Many more women than men are unpaid family workers – 25% compared to 11.6% globally in 2006 (Eyben, 2011). If these women find employment outside family work, their care responsibilities mean that they generally have to find more flexible and temporary employment, this in turn means they are often more poorly remunerated and insecure. This type of unemployment is often linked to their domestic responsibilities (e.g. domestic workers, cooks, cleaners etc.), they often have informal contracts, which mean they have lower levels of legal and social protection, and thus incurs a type of two-tier citizenship for many working women (Kaga, 2012). Indeed, due to the nature of employment and the amount of time in which carers forego earnings, women’s social security contributions are lower. In LAC, for example, 27% of women over 60 years old in urban areas and 30% of women in rural areas have no income of their own (Observatorio de Igualdad de Género de América Latina y el Caribe, 2012).
  • Lower levels of political participation: Unequal distribution of care work between women and men is also one of the most significant factors which inhibit women’s capacity to participate in public life (Sepúlveda Carmona, 2013). Political systems operate in accordance with men’s working hours through rigid schedules, and thus do not take into consideration women’s domestic responsibilities (GDRC, 2013). As a result, in 2008, for example, women’s representation in parliaments around the globe was only 17.8% (IPU 2009 in Brody, 2009: 2).Women’s domestic responsibilities also shape the nature of that political participation. For example,in Latin America and the Caribbean, 52% of women ministers in 2011 were in social or cultural-related posts (Observatorio de Igualdad de Género de América Latina y el Caribe, 2012), and at local level they are generally confined to social welfare positions, given linkages with their role as care-givers (Moser, 1993).
  • Worse health condition: As Sepúlveda Carmona (2013) points out, care work is often arduous, stressful, emotionally difficult and even dangerous, due to their potential exposure to communicable diseases fumes or burns from cooking stoves or risk of attack or assault while fetching fuel or water. Studies on HIV/AIDS caregivers, for example, demonstrate a negative impact on physical and mental health.
  • Lower levels of free time: Women and girls commit substantially more time than men to unpaid care work. In Peru, for example, women spend around 35 hours per week carrying out this work, compared to 15 hours for men (Observatorio de Igualdad de Género de América Latina y el Caribe, 2012). Evidently, this leaves women with less time to participate in market activities, in political life and tome of their own.
  • Lower levels of education: When women enter paid employment or (formal or informal) politics, or simply when the burden of care is too much for one person, it is common to delegate responsibilities to other female members of the family. Grandmothers often care for children in their available time, but unpaid work also prevents girls from going to school. In Bolivia, for example, girls under 14 spent over 20 hours a week carrying wood or fetching water and 20 hours a week washing and ironing clothes (ECLAC, 2007).

However, as care is relational, overburdening caregivers has impact on the quality of the care they are able to provide to care-receivers, and therefore it has an effect on all members of society. Failing to value the contribution of care can have repercussions within the family, within the market and within the economy and society itself.

what_does_unpaid_care_work_cost_society.txt · Last modified: 2018/12/12 16:38 (external edit)