By:
Tsion Molla from Addis Powerhouse, Dr. Konjit Hailu from Includovate, Florence Ndagire from Includovate, and Dr. Shadia Nassar from Includovate.
This blog explores the meaning of unpaid care work and its impact on women generally and women with disabilities. It highlights the intersectionality of women and unpaid care work, the influence of policies on unpaid care work, the challenges faced by those who provide unpaid care work, recommendations, and conclusions. The blog addresses all women and girls, including women with disabilities.
15% of the World’s population are persons with disabilities, and 80% live in low-developed countries (WHO 2011 and World Bank 2016). Persons with disabilities, including women and girls, present significant needs that require care and support. Yet, the African and Arab states lack the welfare system to provide the care and support that children and persons with disabilities require. The available support is provided by families of persons with disabilities, especially women, throughout their lifetime, and this work remains largely unpaid (J. Charme 2019). Across the World, millions of women find that poverty is their reward for the time spent caring for children, older relatives, people with disabilities, and other loved ones (Coffey 2020).
Unpaid carers, especially women, meet the most care needs (ILO 2019). This notwithstanding, the unpaid care work provision by women and girls, including those with disabilities, is treated as a cost-free resource when public services are not available or otherwise accessible. In low-income countries like Ethiopia, girls and women are responsible for disproportionate unpaid care work or underpaid work. Women hardly engage in paid labor/employment, networking, and participating in social change activities. Women’s failure to engage in gainful employment fosters financial dependence on men, who are mostly their spouses or family members, and increases poverty among women with and without disabilities (Coffey 2020).
Definition of Unpaid Care Work
The International Labour Organization defines unpaid care work as work being performed without any explicit monetary reward, which includes both direct care (eg. caring for children the sick) and indirect care (such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water and fuel, etc.) for one’s own family or community (ILO, 2018) .In an increasingly interconnected world, the significance of unpaid care work often remains obscured, yet it is a backbone of societal functionality and personal well-being. Unpaid care work encompasses the myriad tasks performed by individuals, primarily women, that support family members and communities, including child-rearing, elder care, and assisting individuals with disabilities. This critical endeavour, while indispensable, is frequently undervalued and overlooked in economic and social policy discussions.
Unpaid care work is in three categories: providing unpaid domestic services for one’s final use within a household, unpaid caregiving services to household members, community services, and help to other households (ILO, 2019). The care economy is defined as the production and consumption of goods and services required for the well-being of care-dependent populations such as children, the elderly, the sick, and healthy, prime working-age adults (UNWomen, 2023). Globally, women predominantly shoulder the burden of care work. According to Ethiopia’s Time Use Survey, 2018, most women (93%) compared to men (56%) are involved in unpaid domestic work, limiting their opportunities for paid employment, education, and personal development. Women spend almost twice as much time (49%) as men (25%) collecting firewood and dedicate an average of 6.45 hours per day to caregiving activities, while men spend only 0.29 hours.
Intersection Between Unpaid Care Work and Disability
Women with disabilities or those caring for family members with disabilities face unique challenges that significantly impact their lives. These women often have to balance their productive roles with their own care needs, including managing their physical, mental, or emotional health conditions while providing care for others. This heavy burden is emotionally and physically taxing.
Care work may include physically and emotionally demanding tasks, making it difficult for women with different forms of disabilities. Caregiving duties also often take so much time, leaving little time for their healthcare, leading to high stress, anxiety, and depression. Financially, caregiving also limits women’s ability to focus on productive (paid) work, causing economic insecurity, which is worsened by the costs of managing disabilities and providing care.
Women with disabilities or those caring for family members endure significant emotional and physical pressure due to the complex demands of balancing their own care needs with those of others. The absence of adequate support in healthcare, infrastructure, community services, and recognition for unpaid care work adds to these challenges.
Women with disabilities and their care providers are faced with societal stigma, which can lead women to internalize negative beliefs about themselves or their roles, leading to low self-esteem, self-doubt, and a diminished sense of self-worth, also impacting their economic empowerment.
Moreover, women with disabilities often have fewer employment opportunities due to discriminatory hiring practices, lack of accessibility, and rigid work environments that do not consider flexible schedules, and this translates into economic disadvantages. This highlights the urgent need for comprehensive policies and support systems that address their unique needs and provide them with the necessary resources and assistance.
Intersectionality and Why Does it Matter?
Intersectionality is an approach to understanding how various forms of inequality or disadvantage intersect and amplify each other, creating new obstacles often overlooked in traditional analysis frameworks.
The intersectionality of unpaid care work responsibilities with gender, age, class, location, marital status, and disability may create complex layers of advantages and disadvantages. Age is an intersectional factor that adds a layer of inequality. Young girls often assume significant caregiving roles in their homes, like caring for their younger siblings and assisting with cooking and cleaning. This impacts their education and future career prospects, while older and elderly women also continue to provide unpaid care, affecting their health and financial security. Individuals in low-income families, particularly women, face increased burdens due to limited resources to outsource care work and a lack of affordable childcare, disability, and eldercare services.
Geographic disparities further complicate the issue, as women in rural areas face additional challenges, such as limited access to essential services. According to Action Aid (n.d) 34% of women in such areas travel 1 to 2 hours, and 10% travel more than 2 hours to collect firewood. Additionally, fetching water from wells or taps requires considerable time, with 37% of individuals travelling for 1 to 2.5 hours and about 15% travelling even longer. In contrast, women in urban areas are pressured by the high cost of living to take on unpaid care work and paid employment, often balancing multiple responsibilities, leaving them with little time for rest or personal development.
An intersectional lens is crucial in understanding unpaid care work as the type and duration of care work vary with intersectional factors. In rural areas, women may need to collect water, firewood and farm and herd animals—tasks specific to their environment. Limited resources can extend the time required for care activities such as meal preparation, cleaning, washing, and caring for children, individuals with disabilities, and the elderly.
This demonstrates the necessity of an intersectional lens in policy design, as it acknowledges how various aspects of a person’s identity interact to create unique experiences of oppression or privilege. With this approach, we can avoid developing one-dimensional policies that overlook individuals’ specific challenges at these intersections, leading to adequate social and policy responses. By considering these complexities, we can create more inclusive solutions that promote equity, address the real-life issues faced by different groups, and ensure no one is left behind
Conclusion and Recommendations
Unpaid care work intersection with factors such as gender, age, class, location, and disability reveals challenges that were not visible before. This intersectionality highlights how traditional analysis fails to recognize and address the unique challenges faced by different women, particularly women with disabilities and those caring for family members with disabilities. These groups face a complex challenge due to a lack of adequate support.
Addressing these unique challenges requires recognising the intersectionality of factors and comprehensive social and policy changes. These changes aim to recognize, reduce, redistribute, reward, and represent caregivers and care work while ensuring that all caregivers receive the necessary resources and opportunities. Here are some critical areas for social and policy interventions:
1. Access to Services:
Policies and proclamations should ensure affordable and accessible healthcare services for caregivers and those they care for. This includes access to healthcare facilities, health check-ups, mental health support, and care services. To reduce women’s caregiving, services should expand and improve access to affordable childcare, special needs, and eldercare services. Improved access to healthcare, social services, and community programs ensures that individuals receive necessary support directly, minimizing the caregiver’s involvement in daily tasks.
2. Legal Protections:
Strengthen legal protections for people with disabilities in the workplace. Enforce anti-discrimination laws and ensure that people with disabilities are protected against unfair dismissal and hiring processes. The Ministry of Labor should also introduce policies that guarantee equal opportunities, paid maternal and paternal leave, and caregiving leave, allowing caregivers to take time off work without financial penalty.
3. Inclusive Infrastructure:
Investing in inclusive infrastructure and public services significantly reduces the unpaid care work responsibility of women with disabilities or those who care for family members with disabilities by enhancing mobility, independence, and access to essential services. Furthermore, accessibility promotes economic opportunities by enabling persons with disabilities to pursue education and employment, reducing financial dependency on caregivers and allowing them to engage in productive (paid) activities.
4. Research and Data Collection:
Research on unpaid care work, mainly focusing on the experiences of women with disabilities and those caring for family members with disabilities, should be conducted. Data is needed to understand real-life experiences, inform policy decisions, and ensure interventions are evidence-based. By implementing these social and policy changes, we can better support women with disabilities and those caring for disabled family members, reducing their burdens and enhancing their overall well-being. These interventions can contribute to a more equitable and inclusive society that values and supports all individuals by recognizing, reducing, and redistributing caregiving responsibilities.
Reference list:
(1) ActionAid, (n.d.)Unpaid Care Work and Its Impact on Women, Policy Brief. Available at: https://ethiopia.actionaid.org/sites/ethiopia/files/publications/Policy%20Brief%20-UCW.pdf
(2) International Labour Organization (ILO), (2019), The Unpaid Care Work and the Labour Market. An analysis of time use data based on the latest World Compilation of Time-use Surveys / Jacques Charmes; International Labour Office – Geneva: ILO, 2019.
(3) ILO (2018). Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work. Available at https://www.ilo.org/publications/major-publications/care-work-and-care-jobs-future-decent-work
(4) UN Women, (2023) Good practices, lessons, opportunities, and challenges in the CARE ECONOMY in Ethiopia Good Practices, Lessons, Opportunities, and Challenges in the Care Economy In Ethiopia. https://africa.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-02/publication_documentation_on_care_economyrev.pdf
(5) Charmes J. (2019) The Unpaid care work and the labour market: an analysis of time used data based on the latest World compilation of surveys. International labor office.
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