Around the world, millions of women wake up each day to work that goes uncounted, unrecognized, and unpaid. They cook meals, care for children, tend to aging parents, and keep households running. This work sustains families and communities, yet it remains largely invisible in economic measures. The concept of decent work offers a framework to understand why this invisibility matters and how policies can create a more equitable world of work for women.
Table of Contents
Understanding decent work
The International Labour Organization defines decent work as “productive work for women and men in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. This definition goes beyond simply having a job. Decent work means access to fair income, workplace safety, social protection for families, opportunities for personal development, and the freedom to organize and participate in decisions affecting one’s life. Most importantly, it requires equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
The ILO formulated the Decent Work Agenda in 1999, and in 2005, countries agreed to make employment and decent work for all a central objective of development strategies. Gender equality sits at the core of this agenda. The ILO recognizes that the primary goal is to promote opportunities for women and men to obtain decent work, with gender equality as a key element in reaching this goal.
Decent work addresses fundamental rights, employment opportunities, social protection, and social dialogue. It applies to both formal and informal sectors and must address all kinds of jobs, people, and families. For women, achieving decent work means overcoming barriers that have historically excluded them from equal participation in the labor market.
The burden of unpaid care work
The single largest barrier preventing women from accessing decent work is unpaid care and domestic work. Women around the world do 16 billion hours of unpaid care work every day. This includes cooking, cleaning, caring for children, tending to sick or elderly family members, and maintaining households. On average, women undertake 2.5 times more hours on unpaid care work than men.
The statistics reveal the magnitude of this inequality. Globally, 45 percent of working-age women are not in the labor market because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared to just 5 percent of men. In 2023, an estimated 708 million women worldwide were outside the labor force because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared to only 40 million men.
This unpaid work is not just time-consuming but also economically valuable. If given a monetary value, unpaid care work would exceed 40 percent of GDP in some countries, surpassing entire sectors like manufacturing or transport. Yet it remains invisible in national statistics and budgets, perpetuating poverty and inequality.
How unpaid work reinforces economic inequality
The consequences of this unequal distribution extend far beyond the home. When women bear the disproportionate burden of care work, it creates what researchers call “time poverty.” Women have less time for education, paid employment, rest, or civic participation. Every extra hour of unpaid care work shrinks a woman’s chance for paid work by 38 percent and higher education by 34 percent.
Women with lower education levels and those in rural areas face even higher barriers. Limited job opportunities, poor infrastructure, rural residence, and inadequate care and support systems compound the problem. Societal expectations around caregiving further restrict women’s labor market inclusion and deepen gender inequalities.
The economic impact is severe. In Europe, 60 percent of the gender pay gap is linked to motherhood, not because women lose ambition, but because they reduce paid hours or leave work entirely when childcare is unaffordable and parental leave policies are inadequate. In the United Kingdom, one in three mothers with children under five has unwillingly left paid work due to caregiving responsibilities.
Even when women enter paid work, they often face occupational downgrading, taking jobs below their qualification level to better balance home and work responsibilities. This perception of women as primarily responsible for childcare drives statistical discrimination in the workplace and contributes to the unexplained portion of the gender pay gap.
Building pathways to decent work for women
Achieving decent work for women requires addressing the structural barriers created by unpaid care work. This means implementing supportive policies that recognize, reduce, and redistribute care responsibilities.
Investing in childcare and care services
Access to affordable, quality childcare is fundamental. High-quality childcare can drive multi-generational impacts by improving women’s employment and opportunities, business productivity, family welfare, and child development. Research shows that providing access to suitable and affordable childcare increases women’s economic wellbeing by reducing the burden of unpaid care work and freeing time to work outside the home.
Studies demonstrate measurable impacts. A 10 percent increase in childcare subsidy expenditures can result in a 0.68 percent increase in maternal employment among mothers with young children. In real terms, if these expenditures were tripled, approximately 652,000 women with young children would become newly employed. A 10 percent reduction in the cost of childcare can lead to an increase in maternal employment ranging from 0.25 to 11 percent.
Investment in the care economy could generate substantial economic returns. Greater investment in care could create almost 300 million jobs by 2035, nearly three times more than the same investment in construction, and with 30 percent fewer emissions. Every dollar invested in care generates two to three times more jobs than other industries.
Strengthening social protection systems
Social protection policies form another critical pillar. This includes maternity protection, parental leave for both mothers and fathers, flexible working arrangements, and social security systems that do not penalize women. The ILO’s Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention calls for creating effective equality of opportunity and treatment for workers with family responsibilities, enabling them to engage in employment without discrimination and, to the extent possible, without conflict between their employment and family responsibilities.
Countries that have implemented robust parental leave policies show what is possible. In Iceland, each parent receives six months of paid leave, and fathers take nearly 90 percent of their entitlement. This not only supports women’s employment but also shifts cultural norms around caregiving.
Social protection must also ensure safe and decent working conditions, prevent poverty and social exclusion, and maintain incomes. This is particularly important for women in informal employment, who comprise up to 95 percent of employed women in some developing countries and often lack any form of social protection or labor rights.
Addressing workplace and policy barriers
Beyond childcare and social protection, achieving decent work requires addressing discrimination in employment, ensuring equal pay for work of equal value, and promoting women’s participation in decision-making. The ILO’s Equal Remuneration Convention requires countries to ensure equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value. The Discrimination Convention prohibits any distinction, exclusion, or preference based on sex that nullifies or impairs equality of opportunity or treatment in employment.
Work-family policies must evolve to support both parents. When only mothers have access to leave or flexible arrangements, it reinforces the assumption that caregiving is women’s responsibility. When fathers have access to well-paid, protected leave, they are more likely to take it and share care responsibilities more equally.
Infrastructure investments also matter. In areas without running water, electricity, or public transportation, women’s unpaid work hours stretch even longer. Investments in basic infrastructure reduce the time-intensive tasks that fall disproportionately on women and girls.
The path forward
Promoting decent work for women is not just about fairness. It is smart economics. When women have access to decent work, families are more stable, children have better outcomes, and economies grow more inclusively. When care work is valued, supported, and shared, it becomes a force for progress rather than a barrier to opportunity.
The ILO’s 2024 Resolution concerning decent work and the care economy represents a landmark global agreement that recognizes the structural barriers unpaid care work creates for women. It calls for policies and systems that counter inequalities in who receives and provides care, address barriers preventing women from entering, remaining, and progressing in paid work, and improve conditions for all care workers.
Achieving this vision requires action at multiple levels. Governments must prioritize care in laws, policies, and budgets. Employers must provide family-friendly benefits and challenge discriminatory practices. Communities must shift norms about who does care work. And care workers, both paid and unpaid, must have their voices represented in decision-making.
The goal is clear: a world where all women have access to decent work, where care is recognized as valuable and essential, and where the burden of care is shared equitably. This is not just about women’s rights. It is about building economies and societies that work for everyone.
What do you think? How can your community or workplace better support women to access decent work? What changes would make the biggest difference in redistributing care responsibilities more fairly?
References
- https://international-partnerships.ec.europa.eu/policies/sustainable-growth-and-jobs/employment-and-decent-work_en
- https://libguides.ilo.org/gender-equality-en
- https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-what-is-unpaid-care-work-and-how-does-it-power-the-economy
- https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2024-10/GEDI-STAT%20brief_formatted_28.10.24_final.pdf
- https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2019/06/progress-of-the-worlds-women-2019-2020
- https://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/strengthening-childcare-models-advance-womens-economic-power
- https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/greater-investment-care-could-create-almost-300-million-jobs
- https://unsdg.un.org/resources/transforming-care-systems-un-system-policy-paper
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