UN Women Policy Briefs

This brief synthesizes research findings, analysis and policy recommendations on redistributing unpaid care and sustaining quality care services, and was produced for UN Women’s policy brief series. The centrality of care to sustainable development and its relevance for gender equality are now widely recognized by the global community. In “Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”—also referred to as “Agenda 2030”—unpaid care appears as one of the targets under Sustainable Development Goal 5 (“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”), and policy actors are increasingly recognizing it as a critical issue for sustainable development. Given the consensus on the importance of care—and references to its recognition, reduction and redistribution—this brief delves into key policy issues and dilemmas about how to reduce the drudgery of unpaid care and domestic work, as well as redistributing it more equally between women and men, and between families and the broader society. It aims to bridge the gap between the emerging consensus on the importance of care and the not-so-clear policy options for supporting care without reinforcing it as an exclusively female domain.

This brief synthesizes research findings, analysis and policy recommendations for realizing the triple dividend from early childhood education and care (ECEC) services. ECEC services have come to occupy an important place on the global policy agenda. While some developed countries have long invested in this area, a growing number of developing countries are following suit. As those who carry out the bulk of childcare—as unpaid caregivers as well as service providers in day-care and preschool institutions—women have a huge stake in this issue. However, the implications for women, as mothers or childcare workers, have been insufficiently reflected in the work of international organizations and many national-level policies that tend to focus mainly on children. Well-designed investments in ECEC services can have major economic and social pay-offs for families, individuals and societies at large by: (a) facilitating women’s labour force participation, (b) enhancing children’s capabilities and (c) creating decent jobs in the paid care sector. But this triple dividend is not automatic. It needs to be built into service design and delivery. This brief discusses different mechanisms for financing, delivering and regulating ECEC services and highlights promising avenues for realizing the triple dividend. It argues that the key is high-quality childcare that is available, affordable, accessible and compatible with the needs of working parents.

This brief synthesizes research findings, analysis and policy recommendations on transforming pension systems to reduce gender gaps and protect women’s income security in old age. Ageing has a female face. Women not only live longer than men but are also less likely to enjoy income security and economic independence in old age. Because of a lifetime of economic disadvantage, older women end up with lower incomes and less access to land, housing and other assets that would help them maintain an adequate standard of living. In addition, pension systems grossly fail to produce equal outcomes for women. In most countries, women are less likely than men to receive a pension at all, or they have lower benefits. Gendered labour market and life course patterns lie at the roots of women’s disadvantage in old age, but their impact can be magnified or mitigated by specific features of pension system design. This brief takes a closer look at these features and shows how pension systems can be transformed to reduce gender gaps and protect women’s income security in old age.