Inspiring actions to recognize, reduce and redistribute rural women's unpaid care work

Thematic Webinar Series on Women's Economic Empowerment

19 November 2013, 9-10 am EST

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Welcome & Ground rules

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Session Tips

Polling questions

Which household task do you most LIKE to do? 

A: cooking (incl. getting water and fuel)

B: washing or ironing clothes

C: cleaning house

D: food shopping or growing food

E: care of children, elderly or sick

Where are you in the world today?

Who is who in today’s webinar?

Thalia Kidder Rachel Moussié Deepta Chopra

Speakers

Anna FalthModerator

Agenda for today’s webinar

1. Background and ‘common ground’ What is Care? What is the problem? - Deepta Chopra

Linking care to human rights & women’s rights – Rachel Moussie

Policy asks and strategies for change: the ‘4 Rs’ – Thalia Kidder

POLL

2. Working with communities, communications & advocacy

Oxfam’s Rapid Care Analysis, local influencing, viral emails – Thalia Getting Care on the Agenda, Action Aid experience – Rachel Institute of Development Studies Animation - Deepta

Discussion, QUESTIONS and ANSWERS

What is care?

Definition: ‘Care’ includes direct care of people, housework that facilitates caring for people (indirect care) and volunteer community care of people, and paid carers, cleaners, health and education workers

Care is a social good, underpins all development progress

Sustains and reproduces society

Markets depend on care for their functioning

Unpaid care work

Why is Unpaid Care Work important? 1. Care has a widespread, long-term, positive impact on wellbeing and development, & is critical to address inequality and vulnerability.

2. Care is important in understanding women’s lives:Occupies large amounts of women’s and girls’ time -- restricting participation in civil, economic and social spheres

Lack of leisure time -- reduction in women and girl’s well being

Drudgery ....adverse health outcomes

Income from paid work....eroded with costs of care substitution

Economic empowerment through paid work...individualised, limited and unsustainable

Who cares when women work in paid jobs ....reduction of care, adverse outcomes for care recipients

What’s the problem?

It is UNEQUALUnequal distribution of care undermines women’s and girls’ rights, limit their opportunities, capabilities and choices and impedes their empowerment.

It is INVISIBLE

In Policy – Intent and implementation

In Research – Political economy analysis of processes; M&E, impact evaluations

In Programming – entry points, integration/ mainstreaming (women-related and general programmes)

Amongst donors, government officials, researchers

In budgeting - It has INADEQUATE INVESTMENT.

Research on SP and ECD policy

SP: Main focus on redistribution of care responsibilities from the family to the state. Nothing about redistribution within the family; only 2 about reduction of drudgery

ECD: Focus is on support for carers in terms of better parenting, including the inclusion of men as fathers. Redistribution to state mainly based on recognition of women working outside the home in paid jobs; No policy for reduction of drudgery

http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/2795/bitstream;jsessionid=26091DD43F6653874EFB06A98CA57843?sequence=1

No of policies reviewed

No. of policies which have a care intent

No. of countries that these policies were from

Social Protection 107 23 (21%) 16 (out of 53) – SSA and LA

Early childhood development

270 41 (15%) 33 (out of 142) – LA and SSA

Linking care to HR and WR

“Across the world, millions of women still find that poverty is their reward for a lifetime spent caring, and unpaid care provision by women and girls is still treated as an infinite, cost-free resource that fills the gaps when public services are not available or accessible. This report calls for a fundamental shift in this status quo, as part of States’ fundamental human rights obligations.”

UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights – Report on unpaid care work , September 2013

Linking care to HR and WR

The report mentions the following rights violations:

•Right to work•Rights at work •Right to education •Right to health •Right to social security – maternity leave •Right to benefit from scientific progress – infrastructure •Right to participation

Q: What are the human rights violations that we see due to women’s and girls’ unequal responsibility for unpaid care work

Linking care to HR and WR

Q: What are the human rights violations that we see due to women’s and girls’ unequal responsibility for unpaid care work?

A Careless Budget

Approach – policy asks & strategies for change

… as a precondition for achieving women’s political, social and economic empowerment, and for addressing poverty and inequality

* “Three Rs of Unpaid Work” Prof. Diane Elson 2008

• Recognise* care and care work• Reduce difficult, inefficient tasks• Redistribute responsibility for care

more equitably - from women to men, and from families to the State/employers

• Representation of carers in decision-making

Societies provide care through ‘care diamond’*

….

Household

State: pays, provides, regulates care

Market - employers

NGOs, community & religious groups * S. Razavi 2007

Examples of policy asks, interventions1. RecognizeGovernment census includes care work, unpaid work, time-use surveysEducation - appreciation of carers, school curriculum Development actors - (Unpaid) care documented with time use diaries, storiesMedia– radio spots, TV, posters, street theatre, viral emails

2. Reduce Available, accessible time & labour-saving devices; infrastructure development

3. RedistributeWomen to men: men learn cooking, do cleaning, child care, elder careFamilies to the state/employers:Increased care budgets; employers -childcare, health, maternity, pensionsAway from poor women & families:Infrastructure & services in poor communities; domestic workers’ rights

4. RepresentWomen unpaid carers represent themselves in municipal planning. domestic workers involved in labor rights, or economic planning

Any Questions or Comments? REMINDER!! Please type them in and we’ll answer them after the presentations…

POLL: Why is care invisible in your context?

A: “Care isn’t considered work”

?B: “Care is something women

do, it’s ‘natural’ and normal”

C: “it happens in the private sphere”

D: “too hard to change and/or not easy to measure”

E: “it’s not clear what the alternatives are, what can we do?”

Write in other reasons!

In your context, What might be the first step, or the most effective strategy or policy ask?

RECOGNIZE CARE through documenting, publicizing & appreciating

REDUCE time, difficulty, labour intensity of CARE tasks

REDISTRIBUTE responsibility for CARE from women to men

REDISTRIBUTE responsibility & costs from (poor) families to the state / employers

Increase REPRESENTATION of CARERS in decision-making & policy

A B C D E

Communities, Communications & Advocacy

What makes a ‘4 Rs’ initiative effective?

Care is a significant issue here – context-specific evidence

It’s relevant , appealing & compelling – we should do something.

It’s feasible, workable - we can do something.

It’s inspiring!

Rapid Care Analysis in development programsOxfam’s Rapid Care Analysis (RCA) is a 1-2 day exercise with focus groups of 12-20 women and men, a first step to addressing care in development.

FOUR STEPS Exploring relationships of care – whom do

you care for and who cares for you?

Unpaid and paid work activities of women & men – estimate average weekly hours on care

Context-specific problem statement:

- Gender and age analysis of care work; changes in policy, migration, environment; identify ‘most problematic activities’ for women.

Options to reduce and redistribute care:

- Community map of infrastructure & services: identify and prioritise options and actions

RCA focus group in the Philippines

Women’s vs. Men’s workExample from Bangladesh… hours per week

106 hrs

71 hrs

Hours per week

Advocacy for infrastructure and services

Water systems Electricity Childcare and play facilities

Health and social

services

Transportation and school

bus

Technology to improve

cleaning and cooking

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Colombia

Honduras

Nicaragua

OPT

Philippines

Sri Lanka

Tanzania

Popular communications: AFM network & Oxfam Viral emails: migrant domestic workers’ rightsRecognize economic contribution of care workInternational ‘care chains’

http://www.mujeresdelsur-afm.org.uy/

Popular communications

Viral emails about migrant domestic workers

Getting Care on the Agenda

Naming, Framing, Claiming and Programming

Naming: Make care visible in policy discussions - Care is important to sustaining any society, yet unequal and concentrated care provision by a few is a problem. So why is it not visible?

Framing: Promote care as integral to human wellbeing - Women’s rights, well-being, inequality and poverty, national development, burden?

Claiming: Demand government action – Changing policies to recognise, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work through public service delivery, improved regulations on labour conditions etc.

Programming: Support more equitable distribution ofcare responsibilities – Designing programmes that address unpaid care work

Eyben, Rosalind. 2013. Getting unpaid care onto the development agendas. IDS In Focus Policy Briefing, Issue 31, January 2013

Getting Care on the Agenda: Action Aid example

Advocacy happens in many different ways, but here are some of the steps we’ve taken at ActionAid to make care visible:

1.Participatory research and awareness raising amongst women

2.Building the capacity of women and their groups or organisations to value unpaid care work

3.Comparative participatory research with men

4.Women’s groups identify and prioritise their demands for change

5.Presentation of participatory research during community meetings

6.Using research, case studies and women’s testimonies to make care visible to national policy makers

7.Identifying allies, building national coalitions and working with the media ActionAid. 2013. Making Care Visible: Women’s UnpaidWork in Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya.

IDS Animation: ’WHO CARES’

Unique approach to presenting research on unpaid care work linking women and girl's economic empowerment and their human rights.

Unpaid care work underpins the well-being of all societies, rich and poor, but is unrecognised and undervalued by policymakers and legislators.

Need for policy change that recognises the role of women and girls in the provision of unpaid care; reduces the drudgery of unpaid care; and redistributes unpaid care work (from women to men, and from the family to communities and the state), thus laying the basis for true gender equality.

What does care-sensitive public policy look like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVW858gQHoE

Video on unpaid care – advocacy tool

Questions, Comments and AnswersQuestions and answers session