Care Work, Labour Markets, and Gender Equality: Issues and Policies

1. Care Work, Labour Markets, and Gender Equality: Issues and Policies Naomi Cassirer Conditions of Work and Employment Programme International Labour Organization www.ilo.org/travail World Bank, Feb 25, 2009

2. Conflict between Paid and Unpaid work • Conflict between paid and unpaid work is increasing in both industrialized and developing nations • Women and girls are particularly affected; many must make trade offs between economic activities and unpaid care activities • Policies and measures to address work-family conflict are underdeveloped in most countries • Costs of inaction are great for both care and employment

3. Paid and Unpaid Work

4. Policy Framework for Addressing Paid/Unpaid Work • Enable workers with family responsibilities (WFR) to exercise right to free choice of employment • Take account of their needs • in terms and conditions of employment • in social security • in community planning • Develop or promote community services (childcare, family services, etc) • Promote information, education, broader public understanding • Enable integration and re-entry of WFR in LF -ILO Convention on Workers with Family Responsibilities, C156

5. Work-Family Policies in Practice Selected employment policies and measures: How are countries faring? In general; marked shortcomings, e.g., in: • Childcare and other family services (elderly/ill/disabled care, services to reduce domestic tasks) • Terms and Conditions of Employment • Maternity Protection (maternity leave, health protection, cash and medical benefits, employment protection and non-discrimination, breastfeeding breaks) • Leave policies (maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, emergency family leave, retraining/reintegration) • Working time policies

6. Lack of Policy Supports: Individual Reconciliation Strategies Implications for broad social and economic goals

7. Paid Care Work: Some Considerations • Employment in care services has proliferated in recent decades • Paid caregivers are predominantly women • Jobs providing care services are systematically underpaid and undervalued using objective job evaluation measures. • Domestic workers comprise large proportions of all female employment in many developing countries, but these workers often lack access to basic labour rights and protections. • An estimated 94.5 million women are migrant workers, many of whom provide care services in health, childcare and domestic services, filling in the policy gaps of destination countries. • Policy debate, recognizing and valuing care work on par with other types of paid work, legislation, regulation and enforcement are prerequisites to Decent Work for paid care.