COVID-19 – WE-Care

Unseen work, unmet needs: Exploring the intersections of gender, race, and ethnicity in unpaid care labor and paid labor in the US

April 25, 2024

The study seeks to bring visibility to this work and underscore its significance in economic policy. The urgency of the project is highlighted by the recent social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has significantly affected unpaid care work, altering its distribution among men and women as well as across racial and ethnic groups. The paper also brings in the voices of the people who are holding crucial caregiving roles in their communities so readers can hear from individuals directly.

The Care Policy Scorecard: A new tool to shift progress towards a caring economy

August 31, 2022

The Scorecard helps care advocates to assess how care-related policies are adopted, budgeted for, and implemented by governments, and to what extent they can transform the social organisation of care. The paper also includes preliminary results from the application of this tool in Kenya, and shares learnings from the use of the findings for national-level care policy advocacy.

Addressing unpaid care and domestic work for a gender-equal and inclusive Kenya

April 13, 2021

This policy brief outlines why unpaid care work is a critical development, economic and gender equality issue for Kenya. It draws on two sets of evidence from Oxfam’s Women’s Economic Empowerment and Care (WE-Care) programme, which explore the impact of women and girls’ heavy and unequal unpaid care responsibilities both before and during COVID-19.

Caring under COVID-19: How the pandemic is (and is not) changing unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities in the United States

July 29, 2020

The study reveals findings from a rapid poll exploring the gendered and racial impacts of COVID-19 on unpaid care work, which was part of MenCare: A Global Fatherhood Campaign. The report demonstrates how COVID-19 has brought an unprecedented crisis of care in the United States, with a particular workload being taken on by women as a group, and Black, Latinx, and Asian individuals.

Care in the time of coronavirus: Why care work needs to be at the centre of a post-COVID-19 feminist future

June 25, 2020

New research by Oxfam and partners reveals that while COVID-19 and the related containment efforts have caused increases in women’s – and men’s – unpaid care workloads, women are still doing the bulk of this work.