In the latest blog in our series around the first UN International Day of Care, Cristina Rovira Izquierdo sets out how LAC countries are leading the way on care-friendly policies – and calls on the EU to forge a partnership with them to reshape women’s lives across both regions.
How do you define unpaid care? Insights from Timor-Leste
As in so many places, care roles in Timor-Leste are gendered but, says Therese Johnson, Oxfam research also highlights local differences in what people recognise as “unpaid care” – especially in a subsistence economy with lots of other unpaid labour. This blog is the second in our series around the International Day of Care.
How can businesses show they really care about carers?
Firms that boost support for workers with unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities are waking up to the fact that this not only enhances women’s rights and wellbeing, but also productivity. In the first in a blog series for the International Day of Care, Fatema Tuz Johoora, Achmad Fuad Fathurrahman and Leah Payud share insights from pilots in Indonesia and the Philippines of an Oxfam care toolkit for business launching soon.
Kenya’s affluent classes panic when domestic staff are away… so why can’t they acknowledge workers’ value with a decent wage?
During big holidays such as Christmas, social media buzzes with people struggling to cope without domestic workers. Clearly, the workers make a huge hidden contribution to households and the economy. Yet illegal exploitation of these vital women workers continues – and it’s urgent our government steps in to stop it, says Blandina Bobson.
How firms can push for more women leaders in their supply chains – with the help of a new gender toolkit
Jiselle Steele on key barriers for women seeking senior roles in supply chains – and how the Oxfam Business Advisory Service worked with Tesco to help suppliers tackle the obstacles. You can also find out more about the new Supplier Gender Toolkit at our webinar on September 19th.
An ‘Uber’ app for cooks and cleaners? How tech is starting to change the lives of informal domestic workers
On International Domestic Workers’ day, Fatema Tuz Johoora and Tarek Aziz explain how gig economy apps can make Bangladesh’s invisible army of domestic workers visible, as well as offering new opportunities to help them claim their rights to better pay and conditions.
I’m an unpaid carer: I have no paid job – but I do have value
The value of unpaid care for disabled, ill and older people in the UK is equal to the entire budget of the NHS, yet it’s not even counted in our GDP. In a blog for Carers Week, Katy Styles explains why she founded the grassroots, volunteer-led We Care campaign to demand a new deal for the millions of invisible carers like her.
It’s time for the UK to start caring about its carers
Millions of people provide essential paid and unpaid care such as support for children, disabled, ill and older people. Yet their huge contribution contrasts starkly with threadbare state support for their work. Anam Parvez and Silvia Galandini look at the high price carers, and especially women, pay for society undervaluing care – and the policies we need to fix our broken care infrastructure.
So much of the work that millions of Asian women do is invisible: here’s how to change that and value unpaid care
The huge economic contribution of women carers in Asia and the Pacific remains invisible, undervalued and unsupported by governments. Changing that means better research, investment in public services, and including carers in policy making, say Myrah Nerine Butt and Saleha Shah
Governments know shockingly little about the millions of informal and unpaid women workers – and, in a world that undervalues their labour, that’s no accident
Millions of unpaid care and informal workers too often live in poverty, face long hours with harsh conditions, and see their efforts dismissed as “not real work”. On International Workers’ Day, Alex Bush calls for those in power to find out much more about these women as a crucial first step to valuing their work.