What comes to mind when you hear ‘Unpaid care and domestic work’ (UCDW)? Chances are that you envision a mother looking after her child. If so, you’re not alone in this perception. UCDW is often narrowly defined as mothering, with children viewed as

the sole recipients of care. This limited view misses the broader scope of responsibilities women shoulder.

This perspective limits the knowledge for policy support, influencing organisations like the World Bank and Equimundo to concentrate on policies limited to childcare. This oversight particularly affects women in the global South, whose UCDW responsibilities differ from those in the global North. To develop inclusive policies that support all forms of care, a broader understanding of UCDW is essential.

The hidden burden of unpaid care and domestic work

UCDW encompasses a wide range of activities beyond mothering, such as eldercare, healthcare, and household tasks like cooking and cleaning and ancillary tasks such as collecting water and fetching firewood. These activities are essential for the day-to-day well-being of the family and community. However, these responsibilities often go unrecognised and unsupported. The "D" in UCDW is often silent and invisible, despite the critical role domestic work plays in daily life.

What do you see in Figures 1 and 2? Research undertaken by IDS researchers shows that, across the countries studied, direct childcare is not the most time-consuming activity for women. Figure 1 presents the GrOW project’s¹ data for India, Nepal, Rwanda, and Tanzania, highlighting that household tasks dominate Unpaid Care and Domestic Work (UCDW), with time spent on these tasks nearly four times that on direct childcare (Chopra and Zambelli, 2017). Figure 2 shows data for the Philippines, Uganda, and Zimbabwe from ActionAid’s POWER project (Saha et al., 2020), where meal preparation takes the most time, followed by cleaning, preparing clothes, and childcare.

Why we need a broader perspective

Broadening our understanding of UCDW is crucial for several reasons. In the Global North, technological advancements such as freezers, household washing machines, gas and electric stoves that save time in domestic work have lead to a greater emphasis on direct care for children. In contrast, women in the Global South dedicate most of their time to domestic work as evident in figures 1 and 2. This highlights the need for approaches to UCDW that are grounded in the lived experiences of women from these regions to be effective.

According to the ILO, unpaid care consists of two overlapping activities: direct and indirect care. Direct care involves personal and relational tasks, such as feeding a baby, while indirect care includes activities such as domestic work. However, the overwhelming focus on childcare within unpaid care has two significant consequences.

Firstly, it ignores the wide range of unpaid domestic responsibilities that women manage such as cooking, cleaning, fetching water, especially in the Global South. Secondly, restricting the idea of care to children excludes other individuals who require care, such as the elderly, sick, and disabled, from the policy discussions.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that over 1.3 billion people, or 16 percent of the world’s population, are affected by disability, highlighting the need for a comprehensive understanding of care that addresses the needs of all individuals. Many organizations emphasize childcare investments to improve access to quality, affordable services in low- and middle-income countries. For instance, the World Bank has launched a $180 million initiative aimed at enhancing childcare in these regions. This focus on early childhood care neglects the broader spectrum of unpaid care tasks and fails to address the needs of other priority groups requiring care. Including the scope of care required by individuals with different abilities in a household will open space for a robust policy around supporting the diverse care needs ensuring the right to care is upheld for everyone.

Rethinking policies: shifting from childcare to comprehensive care

To effectively address UCDW, we need creative and contextual policy solutions that take a bottom-up approach. Three key elements should be considered:

1. Reducing the Structural Burden of UCDW through Infrastructure

A robust approach to gender-transformative care involves equipping governments to reduce both the duration and intensity of unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW). This requires a focus on structural solutions, such as investments in essential infrastructure—water, sanitation, energy, and transportation—that directly impact the time and effort women devote to care tasks. In many low- and middle-income countries, inadequate access to these basic services significantly increases the burden of UCDW. Moreover, this strategy should go beyond supporting care-related services like childcare, elder care, and disability support to also include vital services such as healthcare and education. These interventions help alleviate the overall demands of UCDW by creating a more supportive physical environment, freeing up time for women to engage in other activities, such as paid employment or education.

2. Recognizing the Social Diversity of Care Networks

Care networks in many societies, particularly in the Global South, extend far beyond the mother-child relationship. These networks include grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and others who share caregiving responsibilities. Care recipients are also diverse, ranging from children to the elderly, the sick, and individuals with disabilities. Maxine Molyneux's research on conditional cash transfers demonstrates that a common feature of child-focused approaches is the provision of support directly to mothers. However, such policies can narrowly define caregiving and overlook the broader distribution of care responsibilities within families. Policies that focus solely on mothers as caregivers risk excluding other key participants in care networks. This is especially problematic in the Global South, where caregiving roles are often shared within extended families. An inclusive policy framework must recognize and support the diverse caregivers within these networks, rather than reinforcing the notion that caregiving is exclusively the mother’s responsibility. In essence, care policies must reflect the complexity and diversity of caregiving roles within families and communities, ensuring that all caregivers are recognized and supported.

3. Closing the gender data gap

Addressing two key data gaps is essential: understanding how women spend their time and their use of technology. The first gap is crucial for developing policies that accurately reflect women's unpaid care and domestic work, rather than applying more generalised policies. The SDG framework includes one indicator on time use (SDG 5.4.1), which measures the proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age, and location.

However, between 2013 and 2022, this indicator covered only 49 countries. Although closing the gender data gap on time use surveys can be costly and challenging, a practical solution is to incorporate time use modules into existing household surveys. For instance, countries like Tanzania and Brazil have successfully integrated such modules into their household budget surveys.

The second gap involves the use of technology. Although time-saving technology has the potential to reduce women’s time spent on unpaid domestic work, its effectiveness hinges on involving women in the design process rather than imposing a centralised design on them.

For instance, the Indian Government’s push to promote high-efficiency cookstoves failed because these stoves were developed without consulting women, leading to low adoption rates. In contrast, when researchers engaged with women and addressed the gender data gap regarding stove usage, they created the Mewar Angithi (MA). This stove quickly gained acceptance, and similar positive outcomes were seen in Kenya and Ghana. The key takeaway is to avoid imposing technological solutions on women and instead tailor them to meet their needs effectively.

By expanding our understanding of unpaid care and domestic work, we can craft policies that more effectively support the diverse roles women play in caregiving. This shift is crucial for advancing true gender equality and economic empowerment globally. It is time to champion these essential policy changes and work towards a more inclusive and equitable society for all.

¹The GrOW program collaborated with 14 global research teams to produce evidence on women's economic empowerment and encourage its use among key decision-makers. 

Disclaimer 

The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of IDS.