SDG target: Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.
Globally, women do three times more unpaid care work than men. The gap is largest in Northern Africa and Western Asia, but it exists in every region. This work is currently valued at $10 trillion per year, but even that huge number still doesn’t capture the full extent of women’s lost economic potential. In 2013, the international definition of “work” was refined to recognize unpaid care, and since then, our partners have been developing guidance to better capture women’s work in surveys around the world. This is a crucial step toward addressing gender gaps in paid and unpaid work.
