Sharing the motherload: Engaging fathers and other key stakeholders to transform gender policy and foster care economies

 

Gender inequality is a key challenge confronting South Africa. Low-income women of colour continue to be harmed by the persistent effects of colonialism and the legacy of apartheid policies. Forty-two percent of households are headed by women within a highly patriarchal society. Gender norms create unrealistic care-work expectations and demands for women, which perpetuate gender inequality and negatively impact children, women's well-being, the economy and the overall development of South Africa. This care work is often performed in challenging conditions exacerbated by the country’s extreme income inequality, apartheid-induced spatial planning and economic policies.

This project builds on a recent pilot project in which low-income mothers were able to voice their intersecting vulnerabilities, enabling researchers to explore potential solutions to improve their livelihoods. The pilot revealed the heavy load of unpaid care work shouldered by low-income women (the 'motherload') contributing to their physical and mental depletion. It also revealed that women’s unpaid care work continues to be under-recognized in South Africa despite gender-equity legislation.

This follow-on project will promote recognition of the impact of the heavy and unequal responsibility of unpaid care work shouldered by low-income women and promote care-responsive policies and interventions. It will also foster engagement of fathers in care work andraise awareness among policymakers, development funders and other key stakeholders regarding the gaps in prevailing conceptions of care.

The project is supported under the Scaling Care Innovations in Africa partnership co-funded by Global Affairs Canada and IDRC. Scaling Care Innovations is a five-year partnership aimed at scaling tested and locally grounded policy and program innovations to redress gender inequalities in unpaid care work in sub-Saharan Africa.