.png){kind=small}
Women play a crucial role in the care economy, a sector dedicated to providing social and material care, including child care, elder care, healthcare, and domestic work. This sector is indispensable to economic and social well-being, as it sustains families, supports workforce productivity, and underpins broader economic stability. Yet, despite its significance, the care economy remains undervalued and underfunded. While they constitute the majority of its workforce, their contributions often remain undervalued and under-compensated. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), women perform 76.2% of all unpaid care work worldwide—more than three times the amount done by men. In the Asia-Pacific region, this rises to 80%. This is not just a gender equality issue but also a missed economic opportunity. If just a few countries invested 2% of their GDP in the care sector—improving wages, working conditions, and career pathways for women—it could increase employment by 3.7%, creating nearly 22 million jobs, according to the World Economic Forum. If such an investment were readily available, what additional measures should be taken to further promote women's roles within the care economy and enhance their working conditions?
IMPROVE SUPPORT AND RECOGNITION
Achieving gender equality in the care economy requires a multi-pronged approach that acknowledges the critical role of various stakeholders. As the public sector holds significant power in elevating the status of care work and its workforce, it must implement measures such as wage subsidies, social protection programs, and pension schemes for women in this industry. However, this alone is not enough. Public awareness campaigns are equally crucial in shifting societal perceptions and elevating the value of care work, for they highlight the essential nature of caregiving and the dedication of the women who provide the service. By fostering respect and recognition, it is possible to dismantle the prevailing notion that care work is unskilled or undervalued. Platforms for collaboration are also vital, whereas forums such as the UN ESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific)’s Feminist Finance Forum (FFF) serve as valuable spaces for stakeholders.
IMPROVE WORK CONDITIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Unlocking the full potential of the care economy requires a collaborative effort from various stakeholders to improve work conditions and expand opportunities for women, and organizations such as UN Women play a critical role in this. They advocate for decent work environments, fair wages, and career advancement pathways for care workers, pressuring public and private sector players to turn more attention toward women in care economy. These players can, then, in turn, contribute by investing in training and development programs tailored to the needs of the women in care workforce. Such programs equip women with the skills to not only excel in their current roles but also progress in their careers, and when it comes to progress, technology also presents possibilities for improvement. In a recent UN Women's report, where more than 590 interviews with women care workers were conducted, technology was shown to enhance care provision, advance decent working conditions, and accelerate career progression. All of these go to show that through collaborative efforts that leverage training, technology, and advocacy, a care economy that offers women not just jobs but fulfilling and rewarding careers can be achieved.
IMPROVE ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
When women care workers have GREATer control over their finances, they gain independence and decision-making power, impacting not just their own lives but also their families and communities. Financial inclusion initiatives play a vital role in this process, for they can provide women in this sector with access to better credit lines, savings products, and insurance, thus equipping them with the tools they need to build a secure financial future and opening doors to career advancement. Savings products foster financial security and provide a safety net in times of need, whereas insurance can offer protection against unforeseen circumstances, safeguarding their well-being and that of their families. Nonetheless, creating effective financial inclusion strategies requires collaboration; Public-private Partnerships (PPPs) with governments, financial institutions, and NGOs collaborating among each other are crucial. This is because such PPPs can develop financial products specifically tailored to the unique needs of women in the care sector, where factors such as irregular work schedules, income fluctuations, and childcare responsibilities play an essential role. With collaboration, women care workers have a better chance to access the financial tools they need to achieve economic empowerment.
IMPROVE POLICY AND LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK
Building a care economy that supports women requires robust policy and legislative frameworks, as well as multilateral organizations, such as the UN, which can play a vital role in advocating for global standards and practices that promote gender equality in this sector. These standards can address issues, namely minimum wages, working hours, and access to parental leave, ensuring that women care workers are treated fairly and have the protections they deserve. Still, effective implementation is key. While such organizations can champion these standards, the responsibility falls on the public sector of each country to translate them into actionable legislation. Strong national and local policies are essential to ensure that women in the care sector are protected from exploitation and have access to fair wages and safe working conditions. Thus, collaborative efforts between international organizations, national governments, and local authorities are paramount in enacting and enforcing these legislations, creating a care economy that values and empowers women.
This highlights the need for a multi-pronged approach to improving work conditions, economic opportunities, and policy frameworks to uplift women, particularly those most vulnerable in the care sector. Collaborative forums, robust policies, and effective regulatory implementation by national and local authorities must work in tandem to drive meaningful change. By fostering partnerships and structural reforms, we can unlock the immense potential of the care economy—transforming women from undervalued contributors into architects of a more equitable and prosperous future.
At BRANDi, we take pride in our Collaborativeness Blueprint, or CoB, a framework which lets any entity benchmark its own relations with stakeholders and take stock of what it has and has not and can and cannot do to uplift the relationship thereto. This plays a part in helping organizations chart their course in making themselves more collaborative, and as for BRANDi, in making our world a bit more connected. Because this is what matters the most.
Comments