Public Webinar: Unpaid care work, social protection systems and access to public services in the time of austerity

Care work – consistently undervalued, unrecognized, and unpaid – is vital for the sustainability of life and the survival of economies. Worldwide, women and girls perform more than three-quarters of the total amount of unpaid care work, representing an unfair social distribution of care. Fulfilling the right to social security for unpaid workers and access to public and affordable care services are critical components of recognizing and redistributing care work; however, there are multiple challenges. On the one hand, social security systems are commonly structured around full-time participation in the workforce. As such, millions of women engaged exclusively in unpaid care work are denied this right in practice, and those who are paid workers are often forced to interrupt their contributions or move into the informal economy. On the other hand, unpaid care work has also absorbed the consequences of crises at various levels, given that responses to crises that result in cuts to public spending and care-related sectors are likely to have an important impact on the burden of unpaid care work. This webinar will address these issues, aiming to point out obligations of States, challenges and recommendations. 

Speakers: Ana Teresa Velez (Escuela Nacional SIndical-ENS, Colombia), Christian Mendoza (Individual member, Mexico), Soledad Antonio Alonso (trade unionist leader, Argentina), Kate Donald (Center for Economic and Social Rights-CESR, EEUU), Julieta Izcurdia (Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia - ACIJ, Argentina).

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