GOVERNANCE UNIT SUPPORT
CARE'S INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY
GUIDANCE NOTES
PROGRAMMING & TOOLS
WAYS OF WORKING
CARE LEARNING & PUBLICATIONS
CARE LINKS
EXTERNAL LINKS
Research Institutes
Development Agencies
Individuals
GOVERNANCE UNIT SUPPORT
CARE'S INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY
GUIDANCE NOTES
PROGRAMMING & TOOLS
WAYS OF WORKING
CARE LEARNING & PUBLICATIONS
CARE LINKS
EXTERNAL LINKS
Research Institutes
Development Agencies
Individuals
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:
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.