The Coronavirus is highlighting just how essential care work is to our economy, health and survival. The idea that we are in an economic ‘shutdown’ is a misnomer. Huge amounts of unpaid care work are forcing many (mainly women) to work overtime at home – as “teachers”, “cleaners”, “cooks” and “nurses”.
This pandemic and the measures put in place to address it would impact different groups differently, including women, people with disabilities, and people from marginalized groups.
The largest initiative of its kind in the world, WE-Care combined advocacy with interventions to improve laundry infrastructure, provide household equipment and promote positive gender norms around UCDW in the Philippines and Zimbabwe.
The coronavirus pandemic is exposing one of our greatest weaknesses as a society: the widening gap between the rich and the poor. With no end in sight at the moment, the impact of COVID-19 will be massive, devastating, and, in many areas of our lives, permanent.
Vin Aranas, WE-Care's Communications Lead, explores how new or improved water infrastructure reduced the time women in Zimbabwe and the Philippines spent on care as main task.
Sarah Hall, Oxfam’s Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care (WE-Care) Programme Manager, explores what businesses stand to gain from easing the burden of unpaid care and domestic work.
