Balancing Unpaid Care Work and Paid Work in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa
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Summary
This project seeks to examine the links between women's economic empowerment, women's paid work, and their unpaid care responsibilities.Read more
This project seeks to examine the links between women's economic empowerment, women's paid work, and their unpaid care responsibilities. Its goal is to support policies and programs that can empower women to overcome barriers stemming from their dual roles as money-earners and primary care providers. Even as more women enter the labour force, their unpaid domestic responsibilities have not diminished. In developing countries, women and girls regularly take on unpaid care work. This has important implications for their economic empowerment. It can - restrict their ability to participate in economic, social, and political activities - limit their ability to seek employment - constrain their employment choices and options By quantifying time spent on care work and women's unpaid contribution to the economy, time-use surveys have helped us better understand the burden of care. However, there are knowledge gaps. We need a deeper understanding of the relationship between women's paid and unpaid care work, and how care is organized. This project will focus on India, Nepal, Rwanda, and Tanzania. Researchers will examine the links between women's economic empowerment, women's paid work, and their unpaid care responsibilities. The insights will encourage policies that consider care arrangements while also increasing women's participation in the labour force. The research team will use the results to offer policy advice on how state and non-state women's economic empowerment policies and programs can integrate unpaid care work. The goal? To maximize knowledge and share solutions across families and generations. This research is supported under the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) program. GrOW is a five-year, multi-funder partnership of the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and IDRC. With a focus on low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, GrOW aims to support policies and interventions that improve women's livelihoods and contribute to societal well-being. One component of the program will support 11 projects addressing barriers to women's economic empowerment and gender gaps in earnings and productivity. This project is among them, selected following a competitive call.
Research outputs
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Goal 5 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) includes recognizing and valuing unpaid care and domestic work. For more equitable conditions, women need decent work that reflects the value of care, including fair wages, and accommodations such as flexible working hours, parental leave benefits, and other social protections. Child care itself needs to be recognized as a vital professional service. This Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) policy brief reviews numerous studies and case studies drawn from research submissions that provide evidence for what works in transforming the care economy.
Women in paid work from low income families are engaged in poorly paid, precarious employment, even as they are overburdened with unpaid care work responsibilities. This double burden has depleting consequences for both their mental and physical wellbeing, as well as those of their children. For women in these contexts to move from a double burden to a “double boon”, women’s economic empowerment programmes have to both improve the options and conditions of women’s paid work and recognise, reduce and redistribute their unpaid care work burdens.
Women in paid work from low income families are engaged in poorly paid, precarious employment, even as they are overburdened with unpaid care work responsibilities. This double burden has depleting consequences for both their mental and physical wellbeing, as well as those of their children. Women’s economic empowerment programmes have to both improve the options and conditions of women’s paid work and recognise, reduce and redistribute their unpaid care work burdens for these women to move from a double burden to a “double boon”.
La prestation de soins – aux jeunes, aux aînés et aux personnes handicapées – est un volet essentiel de l’économie mondiale qui est nettement sous-évalué. Les hommes comme les femmes ont besoin de soins de qualité pour pouvoir participer à la vie économique, politique et sociale. Pourtant, les soins non rémunérés sont majoritairement donnés par les femmes et les filles, ce qui leur laisse moins de temps pour s’instruire, travailler, contribuer à la société et s’adonner à des loisirs.
With more women engaged in the labour force, and men not participating in care work, adolescents and elder women are often required to carry out the majority of care work tasks, which impedes their time and infringes their human rights, restricting generational sustainability of economic empowerment initiatives. In a vicious circle, the same inputs of training and education have to be provided again to the next generation of women – the girls who had to drop out of initiatives to provide care services. Summaries of 50 case studies are presented, as well as a position paper on main issues and recommendations, and a summary paper regarding women’s economic empowerment.