The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the fifth of which is "gender equity", namely: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.  (Click here for details)

Under this major goal, there are nine targets, the fourth of which is "Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate".

● Current Situation

About the World

Women Take on Most of Unpaid Care And Domestic Work

Unpaid care and domestic work refer to the work that takes place within the family, and do not participate in the market without payment. Currently, these workload are still mainly undertaken by women. 

Photo source: un.org

According to data released by the International Labor Organization in 2018, women take on 76% of all unpaid care and domestic work worldwide, three times as much as men. Women's inequality in undertaking unpaid care and domestic work has always been regarded as an important manifestation of gender inequality, which is also regarded as a constraint to women's economic development and empowerment.

Text source: Promoting Women's Economic Empowerment: A New Path to Unpaid Care in Developing Countries, OECD (2019)

About China

Women Employees in Dilemma with Domestic Work

According to the survey on the influence of domestic work on the development of employees made by the National Federation of Trade Union Women Workers Committee, the average hours of domestic work spent by female workers are about 5.25 hours per working day, and the average working day of workers with minor children is more than three times that of childless workers. 

Photo source: internet

There are 82% of female workers in dilemma between work and family. And such conflicts are mainly concentrated on women who undertake more domestic work. While participating in social work, the length of time used in various family affairs is significantly higher than that of male workers. The average time of Chinese women in domestic work is 2.5 times that of men.

Text source: cnwomen.com.cn

●  Cases

About the World

Paternity Leave in Canada

In 2006, paid paternity leave was implemented in Quebec, Canada. The measure stipulates that father of a newborn can accompany the child and the mother for five weeks, during which he can receive 70% of his salary. 

Photo source: soh.com

With the implementation of the new policy, fathers' participation in parental leave has increased by 250%, which helps to reverse the social norm that mothers are expected to take care of newborn themselves. The practice showed that the families benefitting from the policy spent 23% domestic work more than those who did not benefit.

Text source: cnwomen.com.cn

The United Nations Implementing Measures

Photo source: un.org

The strategies implemented by the United Nations to solve the problems of unpaid care and domestic work include taking policy measures to reduce the burden of care, improving the redistribution of care burden between men and women and between family and public or market services, providing adequate and affordable water, sanitation services, personal health services and electricity to rural and remote areas, and reducing the productive labor caused by the crisis to women. We need to re-prioritize public expenditure and allocate more funds to social care infrastructure.

Text source: un.org

About China

Social Policy for Caring for the Elderly at Home

It is a way adopted by many countries to professionalize or quasi professionalize the unpaid domestic work in the care work with social policy, that is, to provide institutionalized economic support to informal caregivers who take care of the elderly at home in the name of social allowance or salary. In this way, we can solve the problems of free nursing and housework.

The pilot scheme of long-term care insurance in Chengdu stipulates that the payment for the first, second and third levels of home care services in severe cases should be made. If the care provider is the children and relatives of the elderly, they can also get insurance benefits. Providing home-based services by informal caregivers is a prominent institutional innovation in Chengdu.

Text and photo source: sohu.com