Care makes our societies and economies work. Yet too often, the people providing that care - overwhelmingly women - do so without the recognition, rights, or the support they deserve.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), women account for around 65 per cent of paid care workers worldwide. Women also perform more than three-quarters of unpaid care work - more than three times as much as men. These unpaid care responsibilities keep an estimated 708 million women out of the labour force, compared with 40 million men. This inequality limits women's opportunities and holds back families, economies, and societies.
Recognizing the true value of care is essential to addressing this. Care work must be fairly paid, with safe working conditions, social protection, and decent work for all. Responsibility for care must be shared more equally between women and men.
But too frequently, national policies continue to reinforce these inequalities. A recent UN Women-World Bank Group policy paper found that 66 of 190 national economies provide no legal entitlement to paid leave for fathers. Even among those that do, half offer less than two weeks. Expanding paid parental leave for men and access to affordable, quality childcare is essential to changing this.
On this International Day of Care and Support, UN Women calls on governments to invest in sustainable care systems that recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work - and uphold the rights of all care workers.
Through our TransformCare Global Initiative and our work with governments, UN sister agencies and other partners, UN Women is helping turn this commitment into action - strengthening care policies, advancing decent work, and building economies that work for everyone.
Investing in care is not simply a social responsibility. It is an investment in gender equality, economic opportunity, and a more prosperous future for all.
In Focus: Care work keeps the world running
Everyone needs care, gives and receives care. Without care work, societies would simply stop functioning.
But here's the problem: We've been looking at care work all wrong.
