Debates about workers on digital platforms too often focus on male-dominated sectors such as deliveries and ride-hailing. In a blog for the International Day Of Care, Veronica Deutsch explains how care workers, overwhelmingly women, are now central to the precarious UK gig economy – and sets out what campaigners, researchers, employers and policy makers can do to support them.
Let’s put a new deal for care at the heart of Lebanon’s recovery plan
Women are paying the price as the nation’s deep, economic crisis drives a surge in care work, says Marwan Issa
Don’t see the value of care, carers and informal workers? We have some messages that might just change your mind…
Tired old narratives such as care is not ‘real’ work need to be challenged. Sanika Sawant, Alex Bush, Anam Parvez Butt, Blandina Bobson, Silvia Galandini and Regis Mtutu on new Oxfam research from Kenya, Zimbabwe and the UK that tested new narratives with exciting potential to build government and public support for care, carers and informal workers.
As Asia changes and ages, domestic workers are in demand – but who will stand up for their rights?
Paid carers are more important than ever to Asian societies and economies. Yet, say Saleha Shah and Raina Bhattacharya, upcoming Oxfam research will highlight how these millions of workers remain underpaid, exploited and invisible. Building decent care systems will mean paying and treating these workers fairly, and also creating new public care infrastructure that can meet everyone’s needs.
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.
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.
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.
Think informal women workers don’t pay tax? Actually they pay more tax than Elon Musk…
The reality is that hundreds of millions of informal and unpaid women workers are paying way more than their fair share – while the super-rich avoid taxes with impunity. Alex Bush, Clare Coffey and Saleha Shah debunk some myths about tax and women’s informal work.
As austerity devastates women’s lives, we want to highlight the economic face of gender-based violence
As governments across the globe slash social protection and public services, that will hurt millions of women and girls, who will be pushed into poverty, exploitation, ill health and insecurity. That’s why, says Dana Abed, during this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, Oxfam will be highlighting the devastating impact of austerity on women, girls and non-binary people
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