At The Great Indian Sexism, we are committed to addressing issues of unpaid care work at issue at family, community, and policy levels:

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At a family level: We conduct interactive workshops for individuals and couples to comprehend unpaid care work, household management, and customize a division of responsibilities that suits their families.

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At a community level: We collaborate with corporates and startups to understand and discuss their maternity and paternity policies, availability of childcare facilities, family-friendly working conditions, in addition to conducting workshops with their employees on unpaid care work.

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At a policy level: We engage with governments and regulatory bodies to advocate for better mandates on equal maternity and paternity leaves, provide fiscal incentives to companies for implementing better care-centric policies and facilities, and recognize unpaid care work at a national policy level.

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Why, you ask?

Across the globe, a stark reality persists: women consistently dedicate two to ten times more time to unpaid care work than their male counterparts. This profound imbalance in caring responsibilities is not merely a personal choice but is deeply ingrained in discriminatory social institutions and perpetuated by gender stereotypes concerning roles and duties.

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Time, being a finite resource, is divided between labor and leisure, productive and reproductive activities, paid and unpaid work. Each additional minute a woman spends on unpaid care work signifies one less minute she could potentially invest in market-related activities or enhance her educational and vocational skills.

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As we scrutinize gender gaps in labor outcomes, encompassing aspects from labor force participation to wages and job quality, it becomes apparent that the unequal burden of unpaid care work is the missing link that sustains systemic disparities.

 

How society and policymakers address care-related issues holds significant implications for achieving gender equality, either expanding the capabilities and choices of both women and men or confining women to traditional roles associated with femininity and motherhood (Razavi, 2007).

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However, the link between private life and participation in the public sphere is not emphasized enough to bring about a comprehensive and systemic change in gender empowerment. Women's involvement in the workforce, especially in leadership roles, is a multifaceted problem that necessitates raising awareness about time use and removing constraints on women's time through investments in care-centric policies at organizational and policy levels.

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Easing the constraints on women's time entails reducing the burden borne by women. Care should not be perceived solely as a burden; this pivotal activity for well-being should be equitably redistributed between men and women, as well as between the family and the State. Failures by states to provide, regulate, and fund domestic and care formal services amplify the burden on communities, families, and particularly women. Finally, recognizing the economic contribution of unpaid care work requires measuring it through time-budget surveys and incorporating time-use modules within household surveys.