“THROUGH WOMEN’S EYES: 14^th FORUM themed “CARE ECONOMY”

RATIONALE

What is the care economy?

Our entire existence is entirely dependent upon the intricately woven “web of life” that is caregiving.

The concept of the care economy is wholistic and includes all goods, services, production, and consumption required for the physical, social, intellectual, and emotional well-being of care-dependent communities, including children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and those of active labor age.

Care activities are comprised of two broad kinds. First, those that consist of direct, face- to-face, personal care activities (sometimes referred to as “nurturing” or “relational” care), such as feeding a baby, nursing a sick elderly, providing emotional support to a cancer patient, or teaching young children. Second, those involving indirect care activities, which do not entail face-to-face personal care, such as cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, doing the laundry and other household maintenance tasks, culturally specific settings, such as delivery of water, fuel supply or cooking process and so on (sometimes referred to as “non-relational care” or “household work”), that provide the preconditions for personal caregiving. These two types of care activities cannot be separated from each other, and they frequently overlap in practice, both in households and in institutions.

The care economy and care work are important components of decent work and care work has both a paid and unpaid nature. Child care, preschool and secondary school teachers, health workers and long-term care workers are paid, yet most of them do double duty of unpaid care work within their home environment.

The care economy supports short-term economic sustainability by enabling daily productivity so that everyone can continue to contribute to the creation of products and services throughout their lives while staying healthy. In addition, the care economy lays the groundwork for long-term economic sustainability by preparing the next workforce through the care work of the current workforce.

The most crucial aspect of the care economy is that it cohesively bind families, friends, communities, and communities together via care labor. As the lifeblood of a shared society, it makes a significant contribution to social sustainability.

Why should Care Economy be addressed?

Population growth and aging, changes in family structure, an increase in the number of people who need care throughout their lifespan, and a birth rate that is below the retirement age all contribute to an increase in the need for care. With more under age children in the household, women spend more time in unpaid care.

Women with care responsibilities tend to be self-employed, engaged in micro and small businesses, and work in the informal sector with less social security.

Unpaid work provides the majority of care needs, but because their work is not valued, it is invisible, ignored, and neglected in policies and planning. The majority of care workers are women and have lower wages, conditions and status.

The fact that the main responsibilities of the care economy fall on women is the root cause of gender inequality in the labor market, which leads to many problems such as unequal gender participation in employment, job and professional differentiation, and wage differentials. .

Unless paid and unpaid care work is recognized as a central part of the economy and policy is addressed, women’s labor force participation will be limited and gender inequality in employment will widen.

The following figures indicate the need to consider unpaid care work and care economics in development policies and programs:

• Women carry the majority of unpaid work on their shoulder. Women spend 3 times more time than men on housework or unpaid work. This difference starts in childhood, girls between the ages of 12 and 15 spending 2 hours 20 minutes a day on washing dishes, cleaning the house, taking care of siblings, cooking, and washing clothes, while it is 1 hours 30 minutes a day for boys.
• In all age groups, the labor force participation rate of men is higher than that of women. For example, there is a maximum difference of 19.9-30.4 percentage points in the 25-39 age group, which is due to the fact that women leave the labor force at the age of 25-39 to give birth and take care of children.
• Men participate in the work force at a greater rate than women do across all age categories. Due to the fact that women quit the labor market at the age of 25–39 to give birth and care for children, the maximum difference in the 25–39 age group is 19.9–30.4 percentage points.
• 865.4 (40.7%) thousands of the total population aged 15 and over are out of the labor force. Among the population outside the labor force, 103,966 responded that they were unemployed because they were pregnant or taking care of their children, 8,996 were taking care of their children, and 12,586 were taking care of others.
• Women’s absenteeism in winter is 1.65 times higher than that of men, and 1.87 times higher for workers with children than for workers without children.
• There are 3.3 percent of the total population of our country or 115,115 people with disabilities. 85 percent of these people, or 97,847, are citizens of working age (16-64 years old). However, about 70-80 percent of people with disabilities are unemployed or living only on welfare pensions and benefits.
• The employment rate of women is 49 percent, of which 53.3 percent are self-employed, or more than half of all employed women work in the business sector.
• In the SME, the number of female managers is 68 percent, of which 87 percent are micro businesses with up to 10 employees.
• Of the 199,000 self-employed citizens, 42 percent or 84,000 are women, while 72 percent of informal workers in catering, commerce, services, finance, education, and health are women.
• According to the Women’s Quality of Life Survey, 3 out of 4 women want to improve their livelihoods by increasing their economic and labor market participation.

In order to ensure equal participation of women in the labor market, it is important to recognize the unpaid care work in the market economy and implement a comprehensive strategy to reduce and redistribute the burden.

What are the solutions?

The care economy is a policy issue directly related to sustainable and inclusive growth, reducing poverty, eliminating socio-economic inequality and creating decent work.

Redressing gender inequality in care work requires restructuring the care economy, which should be an integral part of gender equality policies. SDG 5 to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, includes target 5.4: “Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of pub- lic services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared re- sponsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate.”92

Recognizing the care economy as an integral part of the economic space requires a wholistic approach. In particular, regulatory framework is required while adhering to the 5R strategy was defined by the International Labor Organization (Recognize unpaid care work, Reduce, Redistribute, Reward the amount and conditions of paid work, Representation of care workers in social and policy negotiations) to ensure the implementation of SDG 5.4.

Acknowledging the unpaid care work that women do and increasing awareness of the care economy is the first step in implementing the 5R strategy. To implement the policy that is to reduce and redistribute unpaid care work, it is important to recognize the long hours of work involved, and recognize the gender and social inequity that exacerbates social and economic inequality awareness

Recognition can be indicated through i) national legislation, legal and policy regulations for the care economy; ii) inclusion of quantitative and qualitative data on unpaid work, especially time-related data, in national statistics; and iii) estimation of the cost of unpaid care work and examination of how it relates to economic and social phenomena, such as labor force participation, gross domestic product (GDP), inequality and poverty.

It is important to recognize that the majority of care work makes a valuable contribution both to human well-being at the smallest level, family life, and to economic well-being in the larger picture. However, it is impossible to establish gender equality in labor relations without recognizing and reducing unpaid work, and without appropriate distribution between women and men, and further between the family and the state.

Solutions for the care economy are not only addressed by Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality), but also by SDG#1 (eradicate poverty), SDG 3 (promote health and well-being), SDG#4 (promote accessible and quality education), SDG#8 (promoting economic growth and decent work) and SDG#10 (reducing inequality) are supported as a whole.

Thus, we are organizing the 14th “THROUGH WOMEN’S EYES” FORUM under the theme “Care Economy” and holding a multi-faceted policy discussion in cooperation with women, citizens, civil society organizations, representatives of government institutions in charge, academics and experts, and at the national level to identify the priority issues and solutions, and to determine the areas that will affect the government’s policy.

Based on the agenda discussed at the conference, conclusions made, proposed solutions, recommendations, and position statements, the advocacy strategy of the Movement for Women’s Economic Rights and Empowerment will be defined in-depth. It will also advocate the inclusion of issues aforementioned in the program of action of the political parties in the 2024 parliamentary elections. In addition to monitoring the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, developing and delivering shadow reports, we will monitor the implementation of the recommendations assigned by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to the Government and contribute to strengthening the accountability mechanism.

OBJECTIVES OF THE 14th FORUM

• To build awareness about the care economy and clarify the challenges faced in meeting the goals and indicators included in the “Mongolia Sustainable Development Vision 2030”;
• Discuss the effects of paid and unpaid care work on women based on case study findings, and collectively examine the government’s policies, initiatives, financing, and implementation to increase women’s economic potential and support employment;
• Establish directions, collective goals and strategies to advocate the redress of gender imbalance in care work, entrepreneurship, and the labor market, and unify positions and voices;