By Hidaya Muhiden
Unpaid care work has a significant and beneficial influence on the economy, families, and communities. The issue of unpaid care is a global problem that affects women in all parts of the world, regardless of their socioeconomic status or the level of development of their country. Although some nations have made progress in recognising, reducing, and redistributing unpaid caregiving, the majority of the burden still falls on women, particularly in low-income nations where remuneration is inadequate. This results in women having limited time for paid employment, social connections, activities promoting societal change, or personal relaxation.
The problem
Despite progress in recent years, women still face economic disparities compared to men. A significant factor contributing to this disparity is the unequal distribution of unpaid care work, which disproportionately affects women. However, policies and programs often fail to recognise and address this issue. The disparities in unpaid care work between men and women begin at a young age and worsen as women approach marriage and childbirth. The unequal distribution of unpaid care work between men and women is not only a matter of disparity but also has broader implications for societies, economies, and communities.
Women’s rights are human rights
One of the key steps in achieving gender equality and empowering women is economic development for women. To address this, it is crucial to recognise and analyse the social norms and gender stereotypes that underpin the gendered division of labour, which restricts women to the private sphere while granting men greater access to public spaces and resources. For example, in Ethiopia, the implementation of the new Family Code in 2000 has been linked to an increase in the number of women working in professions that require higher education and have a high non-home employment rate (Driemeier and Gajigo, 2015). Thus, the division of labour has a more fundamental impact on women’s access to education and economic opportunities than most policies suggest.
How to overcome unpaid care
To overcome the challenge of unpaid care work, it is essential to promote sustainable livelihoods that recognise and value rural women’s productive activities and uphold their rights to decent work. This can be achieved through various techniques, such as enhancing local food security and nutrition, generating employment opportunities, responding to identified social and economic needs, adding value to existing initiatives, and collaborating with rural women’s organisations to build their capacity (Chiarini, 2017).
In Ethiopia, the expansion of education has resulted in children spending less time working and attending school more regularly. Therefore, improving the education system can have a positive impact on reducing women’s unpaid care work. As reported by UNICEF (n.d), investing in girls’ education has far-reaching benefits that extend to improved societies, economies, and communities, including the reduction of early marriages, promotion of productive lives, higher incomes, and better futures. Furthermore, it reduces inequality and strengthens economies.
Some strategies that have effectively reduced women’s unpaid care burden in other contexts and could be tested in Ethiopia include:
- Technological progress, globalisation, and rural transformation provide opportunities to reduce the time-consuming and physically demanding tasks of unpaid care work, such as collecting water or fuel, giving women more time for paid work, study, leisure, and personal care.
- Encouraging women’s participation in decision-making groups and organisations is a key focus of many initiatives to empower women.
- Household Methodologies (HHMs) are innovative, participatory approaches that promote equitable intra-household relationships, fair labour division, and shared decision-making processes, which can help reduce women’s unpaid care burden.
- Recognising and valuing care work, promoting women’s economic development, and investing in girls’ education are essential to achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.
- Conducting research to understand the various patterns of care work and the distribution of care responsibilities between men and women, care perceptions, gendered norms, service access, and labour- and time-saving technology can help to design effective future programs.
Conclusion
Policies and programs can encourage an environment that recognises and values rural women’s productive activities, enhancing local food security and nutrition, generating employment opportunities, and strengthening sustainable livelihoods. The aspirations for education have led to a significant shift in the norms surrounding intergenerational mutuality. This is because education is seen as crucial for both individual and family social mobility. Increasing women’s access to education can lead to a decrease in routine housework, as their income and opportunities to access market services increase.
Other recommendations to reduce and redistribute women’s disproportionate unpaid care load include: strengthen the legal framework to ensure women have equal access to economic opportunities and ownership of marital property; Invest in high-quality infrastructure to reduce the burden of unpaid care work on women; Foster an environment that recognises and values the productive activities of rural women and respects their rights to decent work. While unpaid care work has a significant and beneficial influence on the economy, families, and communities, balancing its distribution so that women do not do the lion’s share can benefit whole societies and future generations.
Acknowledgment
This blog is a series to reflect on our learnings from a project under the Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) – East Africa Initiative. GrOW is jointly funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In collaboration with our partners – WISE for capacity strengthening of key policy actors and Addis PowerHouse for running advocacy efforts – we will enhance women’s economic empowerment (WEE), reduce, recognise and redistribute unpaid care in Ethiopia and strengthen the in-country coalition of key WEE champions.
References
- Boyden, J., Porter, C., and Zharkevich, I. (2020), “Balancing School and Work with New Opportunities: Changes in Children’s Gendered Time Use in Ethiopia (2006–2013),” Children’s Geographies, 19(1), pp. 74–87.
- Chiarini, A. (2017). Enhancing Opportunities for Rural Women’s Employment and Poverty Reduction,“. Strategies for Eradicating Poverty to Achieve Sustainable Development for All. United Nations Headquarters, New York.
- Driemeier, M. H., & Gajigo, O. (2015). Strengthening Economic Rights and Women’s Occupational Choice: The Impact of Reforming Ethiopia’s Family Law. World Development, 70, 260 – 273.
- Gebre-Egziabher, K. A. r. (2016). Education and development; females’ education and fertility reduction in Africa: The case of Tigray, Ethiopia. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies – Multi-, Inter- and Transdisciplinarity, 11(2), 102 – 117.
- Kiross, G. T., Chojenta, C., Barker, D., & Loxton, D. (2021). Individual-, household- and community-level determinants of infant mortality in Ethiopia. PloS one, 16(3), e0248501.
- Subramaniam, T. (2023) Gender equality will take 300 years to achieve, UN chief warns, CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/07/world/un-gender-equality-300-years-intl-hnk/index.html
- UNICEF(no date). Girls’ education. Available at: https://www.unicef.org/education/girls-education