Sharing the load: Unpaid care work and women’s economic empowerment

Unpaid care work, performed mostly by women around the world, is a key piece of the empowerment puzzle: it entrenches the subordination of women in society but, at the same time, it is indispensable for economic growth and human wellbeing. In Sharing the load, a new GADN briefing as part of its Gender Equality and Macroeconomics Project, we outline key recommendations to governments around unpaid care work:

• Include unpaid care work in national accounts and in the calculation of GDP.

• Commission gender impact assessments of macroeconomic policies and budgets.

• Invest in time- and labour-saving technologies in care and domestic work as appropriate for the most marginalised women in urban and rural areas.

• Invest in gender-responsive infrastructure like public transportation, roads, home electricity and water, and well-lit public spaces.

• Increase the provision of publically funded education, health and care services.

• Provide comprehensive universal social protection regardless of employment status.

• Challenge social norms that portray unpaid care work as “women’s work”.

• Include carers in economic decision-making and policy design.