The Care Economy, Covid-19 Recovery and Gender Equality – A Summary Report

Gender inequalities are at the heart of the care economy, directly linked to women’s position on the frontline of unpaid and low-paid work in the globalised care economy. COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the essential nature of care work and its central role in the functioning of economies and societies. Despite the critical role caring activities play in EU economies, contributing directly to economic and social well-being, care is undervalued, receives little recognition, and is frequently low-paid or often unpaid. At a global level, care work is overwhelming carried out by women, often as part of a hidden or underground economy and shaped by historical and persistent gendered inequalities. Care involves both physical and emotional labour and encompasses the paid work of childcare, education and healthcare workers, those employed in institutional long-term care (LTC) settings, informal or unpaid work in the community as well as domestic work in the home. Care is a spectrum of activities that reveals the critical, although largely unrecognised, interdependence and interconnectedness of society.