Unpaid care work refers to the many services that women provide in their homes and in their communities. This might range from preparing food to taking care of children, the ill and the elderly.
Women are responsible for production of goods and services that household consume yet its not reflected in the economy’s GDP.
You do agree that the responsibility of taking care of children affect the right to education and employment as well as participation in politics.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) its clearly stated that one of the significant structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment is women’s disproportionate burden of unpaid work at home that restricts women from taking up paid jobs, undertaking advanced education and skills training, and most importantly—participation in public life.
Could there be redistribution and shared household responsibility?
Why do women do more household compared to that of men?
It will not be an easy task to achieve agenda 2030’s new 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 169 targets which aims at ending poverty, combating inequalities and as well as promoting prosperity that were so rallied by governments if the trends on gender related inequalities are not put to halt. According to UN women, the new sustainable development goals, and broader sustainability agenda, were put in place to ensure that what the MDGs did not manage to achieve is completed and therefore address the root causes of poverty and inequality and the universal need for development that works for all people.
Unpaid care work is one major inequality need that ought to be prioritized if we aim to realize development that works for all people.
According to United Nation’s Inclusive and Equitable Local Development Programme (IELD)Globally, only about one in two women takes part in employment for pay or profit, against three in four men—this means that about 700 million fewer women than men are employed in 2016 (1.27 billion versus about 2 billion men). In many parts of the world, women are more likely than men to become and remain unemployed, have fewer chances to participate in the labour force and often have to accept lower quality jobs. An important determinant of gender equalities at work is the unequal distribution of unpaid care and household work between women and men. (Source; www.uncdf.org)
In the spirit to achieving the sustainable development goals and realization of agenda 2030, Africa Youth Trust (AYT) has joined hand with ActionAid to give training and empower young women and youth on unpaid care work. This week (3rd -7th December 2018) has been an educative and involving moments for the Young Urban Women (YUW) project beneficiaries at the Central Park Hotel in Nairobi and Royal Court hotel in Mombasa, as they undergo a concurrent training on unpaid care work and how it relates to Human Rights and developing solutions.
Annet Pinto, a participant in the unpaid care work training says, “women hardly do they get to enjoy the rights to participate in the politics, freedom to express themselves as well as a standardized life not because they do not have the capabilities to but simply because they are often overwhelmed with household and can hardly find time and resources to pull themselves close to the round tables and change the norm.”
This is not just her say but its a replica to the majority questioned. Day in Day out, women are rotating on the same circumference getting things done, is this still not good enough to deserve recognition?
During the ongoing AYT training the participants made recommended few strategies that if implemented might help change men’s perspective on unpaid care work;
- swapping duties even for a a day
- Share expectations
- Share positive effects i.e. time to relax together
- Engage men and educate both men and men on rights as well as all about unpaid care work
- Challenge the culture by engaging the community and thereby creating awareness on unpaid care work
- Initiating women day/ labor in relation to unpaid care work.