Care work consists of the activities undertaken to ensure the day-to-day well-being and development of persons from various perspectives: physical, economic, moral, and emotional. As such, it ranges from the provision of elements essential to human life, such as food, shelter, sanitation, cleanliness, health, company, and a healthy environment, to support and the transmission of knowledge, social values, and practices via processes related to nurturing and other community dynamics. Care work consists of two overlapping activities: direct, personal, and relational care activities, such as feeding a baby or nursing someone who is ill, or supporting an older or disabled person; and indirect care activities, such as cooking and cleaning.3 4
Consists of all unpaid services provided by individuals within a household or community for the benefit of its members, including care of persons and domestic work. Common examples include cooking, cleaning, and looking after children, older persons, and persons with illness or disabilities, but can also include other acts such as collecting water and fuel or emotional support. Voluntary community work that supports personal or household care, such as community kitchens or childcare, are also forms of unpaid care work. Women and girls, in all their diversity, have disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work; globally they spend three times as much time on this work as do men and boys. Unpaid care work is one of the main barriers preventing women from moving into paid employment and better-quality jobs 5.
It is the direct care for persons performed within a household or institution for pay or profit. Paid care work spans both public and private spheres and is provided in various settings, in both formal and informal economies. Care work is a significant source of work for women globally6.
It is a worker who looks after the physical, psychological, emotional, and developmental needs of others within an employment relationship. Care workers include a wide range of workers across education, health, social work, personal care services, and domestic work7.
It is a person who provides unpaid care or support to individuals within their household or community. Women provide the vast majority of unpaid care work in terms of number of hours and represent the majority of unpaid carers around the world, performing over 75 percent of the total amount of unpaid care work. Many care occupations are inaccurately viewed as unskilled or an extension of women’s perceived “natural” or “traditional” role as caregivers, a stereotype contributing to their low status, low pay, and lack of representation8.
Around the world, care is primarily provided by women and girls. According to the ILO, women spend three times as much time on this work as men. Unpaid care and domestic work worldwide are the equivalent to approximately 9% of the global GDP. That is a contribution of US$11 trillion. Women do three-quarters (75%) of this work 1 .
Gender norms contribute to keeping this unequal division of labor in place, which has negative implications for gender equality.
This is a consequence of the fact that many caregiving occupations are mistakenly considered unqualified or an extension of women's "natural" or "traditional" role as caregivers. This stereotype contributes to their low status, low pay and lack of representation in decision-making spaces.
The overload and disproportionate distribution of care work directly impacts girls and women as it creates time poverty. This hinders and interrupts their personal development and potential, as it impedes their participation in the labor market, education, and their time for self-care and recreation.
In addition, and due to the lack of recognition and valuation of care work, the working conditions of paid caregivers are often precarious, with low wages and little or no access to social security. Moreover, this paid care work is mainly performed by women around the world, and in particular by migrant women from countries in the Global South and from rural and peripheral areas, who fill the care gap left by women from the Global North or from urban centers who are increasingly entering the workforce.
On the other hand, the lack of public infrastructure for care results in deficient, inaccessible and insufficient care provision for many populations, particularly children, persons with disabilities, and older persons. These groups are also commonly seen as dependents, without agency, and subjects of charity, which limits their voice and participation in policies and fora that are key to their well-being.
Care workers, whether paid or unpaid, as well as care receivers face multiple discriminations derived from intersecting identities, such as being a person of color, having lower income, having a disability or being from a rural environment. Women from such groups constitute the bulk of care workers, and suffer from lack of social protection, inclusive public policies and just regulatory frameworks. Meanwhile, care receivers are also frequently subject to abuse and violations of their human rights due to their identity, with little promise of justice and accountability.
The Global Alliance for Care promotes an intersectional and contextual approach to transform structural inequalities affecting women and caregivers in general. It does this by considering differentiated needs and interests based on gender, age, territorial location, occupation, rural and urban settings, religion, disability status, nationality, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic differences and other characteristics of persons.
We aspire for the feminist care agenda to be fully installed globally by 2026 in order to overcome gender inequality. We are working to promote a new social organization that guarantees the rights of those who need care, of those who care for others, and that also considers self-care. We also encourage governments to make regulatory changes and to invest decisively in the design and implementation of care policies, programs, and actions with citizen participation and an intersectional perspective.
