Conclusions And Recommendations

Abstract

The present World Survey on the Role of Women in Development has contained an examination of the important links between gender equality, income poverty and time poverty. The responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work, which falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women and girls, sustains people and households on a day-to-day basis and across generations. Unpaid care work is the foundation upon which all other economic activities rest. Rooted in discriminatory social norms and gender stereotypes, women’s disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care and domestic work has significant consequences for both women and their families and is deeply connected to the high rate of poverty among women. The intersection of income poverty and time poverty among women is starkly evident in the fact that they are at greatest risk of poverty at the stage in their life course during which they form a family and raise children. At that stage, families face the increased expenses associated with having children, and the women in the family also have less time available for paid work. Women face a stark choice between forgoing income-generating opportunities or accepting insecure forms of employment, while struggling to manage their heavy and intense burdens of unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities.