Gender Equality | Family Life | Human Dignity | Social Justice
Today’s focus: The work that keeps families going, but rarely gets counted.
Quote of the Day
“The way care is currently organized tends to reinforce the gender and social inequalities we are striving to overcome.” — Gilbert F. Houngbo, International Labour Organization, October 29, 2024.
When Everyone Is Resting, Someone Is Still Working
Imagine a woman who wakes up at five in the morning.
Before anyone else gets out of bed, she has already started preparing breakfast.
She gets the children ready for school, packs their lunches and makes sure they have everything they need.
Then she goes to work.
By the time she returns home, she is tired. But dinner still needs to be prepared. The children need help with their homework. There are clothes to wash and a younger child who refuses to sleep.
Eventually, the house becomes quiet.
Her husband is resting. The children are asleep.
She is still cleaning the kitchen.
Tomorrow, she will do it all again.
Now imagine someone asking her how many hours she worked that day.
She might mention the eight hours she spent at her paid job.
But what about everything she did before leaving home and after returning?
Those hours rarely appear on a payslip.
Yet without them, the household would struggle to function.
This is the kind of work Gilbert Houngbo was referring to when he spoke about inequalities in the way care responsibilities are organized.
We often describe looking after children, preparing meals and caring for elderly relatives as expressions of love.
And they are.
But love does not make the work effortless.
Nor does it mean that one person should automatically carry most of the responsibility.
In many families, women are expected to manage the home even when they also work outside it.
Sometimes, this expectation is so deeply rooted that nobody questions it.
A father who prepares dinner may be praised for helping his wife.
A mother who prepares dinner is simply doing what everyone expects.
But why should caring for a shared home be considered one person’s responsibility and another person’s contribution?
This is not about keeping a daily record of who washed more plates.
It is about recognizing that time matters.
A woman who spends several additional hours each day caring for others has fewer hours available for rest, education, employment or personal interests.
Over months and years, those differences can affect her opportunities.
Of course, families organize their responsibilities differently. Some parents stay home while others work. Some households have elderly relatives who need constant care. Others are raising children without support from a partner.
There is no single arrangement that works for everyone.
But there should be room for honest conversations about fairness.
Who gets to rest when the day is over?
Who gives up an opportunity when childcare becomes difficult?
Who is expected to remember appointments, prepare meals and notice when something needs to be done?
And whose tiredness is taken seriously?
A family should be a place where people care for one another, not a place where one person’s exhaustion becomes the price of everyone else’s comfort.
Perhaps appreciation should begin with something more meaningful than saying thank you.
Sometimes, it means getting up and doing your share.
Did You Know?
More than 700 million women are outside the global labour force because of unpaid care responsibilities.
In October 2024, the International Labour Organization published estimates showing that 708 million women worldwide were outside the labour force because of unpaid care responsibilities.
The figures referred to 2023 and were based on data from 125 countries.
For comparison, approximately 40 million men were outside the labour force for the same reason.
These responsibilities include caring for children, elderly relatives and people who need assistance with daily activities.
The figures do not mean that every woman concerned wanted paid employment. They show how strongly care responsibilities influence people’s availability for work.
The ILO’s earlier research also revealed the unequal distribution of unpaid care.
Its 2018 report estimated that women performed 76.2% of unpaid care work worldwide, based on available time-use data.
This work includes cooking, cleaning, collecting water, caring for children and looking after family members.
In many African communities, such responsibilities can occupy a substantial part of the day, particularly where families have limited access to affordable childcare, reliable water supplies or other essential services.
Consider a mother who wants to attend vocational training.
The course may be affordable, but if she has nobody to care for her children, attending becomes difficult.
Or consider a woman caring for an elderly parent who requires daily assistance.
She may be qualified for employment but unable to accept a job with fixed working hours.
These situations show why access to childcare, flexible working arrangements and support for family caregivers matter.
Sharing household responsibilities more fairly can also make a difference.
Recognizing unpaid care work does not diminish the love behind it. It acknowledges the time, effort and opportunities involved.
Sources: ILO — Unpaid care work prevents 708 million women from participating in the labour market, October 29, 2024 · ILO — Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work, 2018.
For Discussion
When both parents work outside the home, should household responsibilities automatically be shared equally?
In many Cameroonian and African households, cooking, cleaning and childcare are still largely considered women’s responsibilities.
Is this changing among younger families?
Should boys be raised to see cooking, cleaning and caring for younger siblings as ordinary life skills rather than tasks reserved for girls?
And what can governments and employers do to support parents and family caregivers who struggle to balance paid employment with responsibilities at home?
There is also a question worth asking within our own families:
When was the last time we noticed how much work someone was doing simply to make everyone else’s day easier?
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