Myrah Nerine and Alex Bush introduce a new paper that calls on decision makers at COP28 to pay attention to the gendered impacts of the climate emergency.
A bi-regional care pact between Latin America and Europe can be a big step towards a world that truly supports carers
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.
The Gross Domestic Problem: What Would A New Economic Measure That Values Women and Climate Look Like?
The fixation with measuring progress by Gross Domestic Product leads straight to gender injustice, austerity and environmental ruin. Anam Parvez Butt and Alex Bush introduce a new Oxfam discussion paper that aims to encourage debate about alternative metrics, and calls on advocates to join the “Beyond GDP” movement Illustration by Alex Bush Since its official adoption at the Bretton Woods …
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.
How can we tell a new story that boosts support for all care and carers?
The millions of paid and unpaid carers across the UK – including parents and guardians of children, social care and childcare workers, and unpaid carers for disabled, ill and elderly people – desperately need a new deal. Silvia Galandini, Anam Parvez (both Oxfam GB) and Nick Gadsby (The Answer) introduce a new toolkit that can help build public pressure for change, by constructing a fresh and compelling narrative about the value of all care.
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.