From Oxfam & Unilever - There is growing evidence that business leaders and managers understand that the unequal and heavy share of unpaid care and domestic work done by women and girls is an issue which matters to the effective (on-going) operations of their firms. Some companies have already taken practical steps to address the issue by supporting employees along their value chain, for example with workplace policies that enable care responsibilities to be met, and by innovating with products and services that meet the evolving needs of consumer family and household care, so simultaneously creating business value.

This Oxfam/Unilever Business Briefing shares complementary learning and insights gleaned from working on unpaid care and domestic work with communities and consumers around the world, and with businesses and brands to share emerging good practice and evidence.

Jessica Espinoza Trujano & Anne-Marie Lévesque (Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment)- “Development finance institutions (DFIs) play a major role in mobilizing private sector investments in developing countries. While there has recently been an increasing interest among DFIs in gender-lens investing, these efforts have been somewhat blind to the question of women’s unpaid work and have not yet led to a stronger investment focus on the care economy. Adopting what has been defined by other feminist scholars as a transformative approach to care, this article analyses the potential transformative effects of private sector investments in the care economy by DFIs to help build more resilient and gender-equitable economies following the global COVID-19 pandemic. The authors find there is significant potential for DFIs to approach investments with a more strategic gender- and care-lens and contribute to the recognition, reduction, redistribution, reward, and representation of care work, in line with their objective to promote sustainable socioeconomic development in developing countries.”

By Donor Committee on Enterprise Development. Care work, in all its forms, is a critical social good. It is essential for the provisioning of society and provides the foundation upon which our market economies function. Most care work across the world is unpaid, and its distribution is strongly gendered: more than three-quarters of all unpaid care work globally is carried out by women. A growing body of research has explored the relationship between childcare and women’s economic empowerment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The results suggest that childcare provision can improve women’s labour market outcomes across a number of measures, including employment, income, and transitioning from the informal to the formal sector. Based on these promising links, further research has sought to develop the ‘business case’ for care - focusing largely on two avenues: public investment in childcare provision and formal, employer-supported childcare. A ‘missing middle’ between these two well-documented models, of great relevance for development actors focused on promoting childcare solutions in LMICs, is about meeting the childcare needs of women micro and small enterprises (MSEs), including self-employed workers.

As society emerges from COVID-19 into a recovery economy, questions about the future of care also emerge. What organizational and policy changes are needed to ensure that care work and caregiving is more equal and sustainable? And what research questions on the care economy remain to be investigated? To explore these lines of inquiry, the Institute for Gender and the Economy convened a virtual research roundtable on Care Work in the Recovery Economy in January and February of 2022 with support from Women and Gender Equality Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The workshop hosted over 60 scholars and practitioners from around the world who presented their cutting-edge research, identified research agendas, and discussed policy implications for the future of care. This report by Rotman Institute for Gender and the Economy highlights key policy and research insights from the roundtable.

From The International Labour Organisation (ILO)- “The report provides a global overview of national laws and practices regarding care policies, namely maternity protection, paternity, parental and other care-related leave policies, as well as childcare and long-term care services.”

From The International Development Research Center (IDRC)- This IDRC evidence review looks at the impact of COVID 19 on gender equality and women’s rights and makes the case for investing in child care.

From International Women’s Development Agency (IWDA)- This is a factsheet created by IWDA on the value of care in the time of COVID-19. The COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated more than ever that care work, paid and unpaid, underpins economic and social life in all societies. It is critical to sustaining society’s wellbeing, supporting people to live meaningful and healthy lives.

From summer camps to long-term care insurance, automated meal-planning, and renovations to make beloved homes more accessible for older adults, the market for products and services that help consumers care for the people in their lives is huge. In fact, in 2019, the care economy totaled at least $648 billion, making it $138 billion larger than the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.

The Investor’s Guide breaks new ground by measuring the care economy as a singular, holistic market. The findings help founders and funders think strategically about entering the care economy.

From CWEEE. The Coalition for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Equality (CWEEE) is an advocacy coalition that seeks to advance women’s economic empowerment and equality as a foreign policy priority of the U.S. government and multilateral development institutions. CWEEE seeks the advancement of women’s economic empowerment and equality as a priority for the United States in its foreign policy and assistance. CWEEE also seeks to work with multilateral organizations and financial institutions to encourage broader investments for all women.

From Oxfam. Care work needs to be recognized, shared and invested in now more than ever given that progress on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 – Achieve Gender Equality – is behind target and COVID-19 has created additional challenges with increases in care work, poverty and precariousness that could reverse gains made in gender equality and poverty reduction. Tools that can enable countries to monitor and track progress and hold governments to account on these commitments are critically needed as countries rebuild their economies and address the fallouts from the pandemic.

The Care Policy Scorecard provides a practical tool to assess and track the extent to which government policies related to care are adopted, budgeted for and implemented, and the extent to which they have a transformative effect on care. It can be used at the national or sub-national level. The Scorecard is intended to be used by civil society, government and academia alike. Whether you are a policy maker, work for an NGO or are a researcher, the Scorecard allows you to carry out an assessment of the care public policy environment in your country to understand where there is positive progress, and where there are gaps and room for improvement.

From ESCAP. This report describes the state of the unpaid care economy in ASEAN countries. By examining the socioeconomic, political, legislative and institutional conditions in each country of ASEAN, this report highlights examples of promising policy measures undertaken either prior to the COVID-19 pandemic or as emergency measures after its onset to address women’s unpaid care and domestic work. The report proposes recommendations to introduce a care-sensitive dimension into national and regional gender policies towards building back better and more equal.

By Alison Rose. As we’ve witnessed in recent months, our economic and social challenges are complex and interconnected. In order to achieve truly effective and sustainable solutions which benefit a broad spectrum of communities, we must not disenfranchise a diversity of entrepreneurs from making their economic contribution. We need to keep this at the forefront of our agendas, and ensure female entrepreneurship helps fuel a fairer, more productive future.

From FP Analytics. A sustainable, equitable, and just recovery from COVID-19 requires purposeful policy action to mitigate the worsening of structural inequalities and to address their root causes. This report synthesizes existing evidence of how women have been impacted by the pandemic, how governments have responded to date, and what is at stake if policymakers fail to enact more inclusive recovery measures. It also provides recommendations for rights-based policies, interventions, and investments underpinned by rigorous gender analysis. Finally, this report recognizes that “the women and girls who are furthest behind often experience multiple inequalities and intersecting forms of discrimination, including based on their sex, age, class, ability, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and migration status” and calls for an intersectional and nuanced approach to evidence-based policymaking that benefits everyone.

From The Work and Opportunities for Women (WOW) Programme in partnership with Primark. Women have been central to the Bangladesh garment workforce over recent decades, using the opportunity to financially support their families. However, many women are still expected to undertake most household chores and childcare. They often struggle to shoulder both long hours at work and unpaid work and care responsibilities. Unpaid work and care refers to unpaid time spent on activities within a household for its members including care of persons, housework and voluntary community work.

The WOW programme, in partnership with Primark, visited garment workers in communities and factories in Bangladesh in 2019. WOW’s research found that the women they interviewed are working a “double day”, spending an average of 7 hours on unpaid work, including child care and domestic work, in addition to their shift in the garment factory. The men interviewed spent considerably less time, with up to 2.5 hours spent on unpaid work and care activities. WOW also found that where men do help their wives, they often face backlash from their community.

From The Holding Co. and Pivotal Ventures. The Investor’s Guide to the Care Economy is the first study of its kind to quantify the market opportunity in care. For the first half of 2021, The Holding Co., in partnership with Pivotal Ventures, launched this initiative to investigate areas of care that show the most promise for investors, entrepreneurs, and corporations as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed just how inadequate our current care economy really is.

The report leverages data from 25+ market reports, 6 government data sources, 30+ expert interviews, 2 original national data collection surveys with 5000+ participants spread across both, and guidance from 40 stewardship and advisory council members who are leaders in care today. The report focuses on household and families willingness to pay, the role of government in igniting the private sector, and the role of insurance and employers to support care innovation.

This resource is designed to serve you in multiple ways. You can dive deep into a segment that resonates with you, pluck a data point for a pitch deck, or share the site more broadly to encourage others to look seriously at the care economy. We hope that this report inspires you to dedicate your investments, entrepreneurial energy, and collaboration to being part of this historic moment in care.

From Criterion Institute. Criterion Institute, in partnership with leading gender lens investors, has identified 10 evidence-based economic patterns and translated them into investment opportunity and risk. Understanding these patterns is critical for investors of all kinds to understand short- and long-term risks, uncover hidden opportunities, and invest to capitalise on both. Understanding these will enable government and impact investors focused on recovery to invest better for the outcomes they seek.

From Promundo. State of the World’s Fathers is a globally recognized, biennial report and advocacy platform aiming to change power structures, policies, and social norms around care work and to advance gender equality.

The third State of the World’s Fathers report reveals new research on men’s caregiving from 11 countries, with additional cross-country analysis of data from over 30 countries. It calls for men’s uptake of their full share of the world’s childcare and domestic work – across all societies and relationships – to advance gender equality.

From the World Bank. This report finds that while important progress toward gender equality has been made in the past decades, inequalities linked to gender norms, stereotypes, and the unequal distribution of housework and childcare responsibilities persist. Lifetime events such as marriage and parenthood bring substantial changes in time use among women and men. This paper updates and reinforces the findings of previous studies by analyzing gender differences in the allocation of time among market work and unpaid domestic work. Results from the analysis of time use patterns in 19 countries of different income levels and from various regions suggest that women specialize in unpaid domestic and care work and men specialize in market work. The paper employs propensity score matching to assess the marriage and parenthood "penalty" on time use patterns over the lifecycle. The findings indicate that women of prime working age are the most penalized on a host of measures, including labor market participation, unpaid domestic work, and leisure time. Men are not necessarily penalized for, and sometimes benefit from, marriage or parenthood.