COVID-19 in Women’s Lives: Care as an Investment

Publication date: 15/01/2021

The pandemic has highlighted the caregiving crisis and broadened public debate on this issue beyond the women’s movement. There was, however, already a crisis in caregiving before COVID-19 and it was one of the main obstacles to women’s equal participation in the economy, and to the achievement of gender equality within families and in society. Without specific and dedicated actions to position care as a collective, public issue, and one of prime importance for economic and social development, the pandemic will end up aggravating inequality between men and women within households and in the economy without resolving the historical question of the distribution of productive and reproductive work. There is already a broad base of evidence on how to promote social co-responsibility for caregiving and its derived benefits, and now is the time to expand the debate on this issue to a political level, among strategic actors, to encourage timely decision-making.

Categories

Type document: Special reports
Coordinator: OEA-CIM
Language: English
Series:
Number:
Topic: Equality
Country: Latin America
Area: Gender equality policies
Keyword: Cares; COVID-19; Inequalities; Gender
SDG: Gender equality