The Role of Women as Primary Care Providers in the Economy

Women have always been at the center of the world’s care systems – raising children, tending to the elderly, supporting the sick, and holding households together. Yet despite this enormous contribution, most of it remains uncounted, unpaid, and undervalued. The care economy – the entire ecosystem of caregiving work – runs largely on women’s labor, and this has deep consequences for their economic security, professional lives, and long-term well-being. Understanding why women dominate this space, and what it costs them, is essential to building a fairer economy for everyone.

Why women dominate the care economy 🔗

Across cultures and income levels, caregiving has been designated as “women’s work.” This is not a natural outcome – it is the result of deeply embedded gender norms that assign domestic and nurturing responsibilities to women from a young age. According to UN Women, women perform an average of 2.5 times more hours of unpaid care work every day than men, and girls already provide 160 million more hours per day on domestic and care tasks than boys. The socialization starts early and continues throughout life.

Beyond cultural norms, economic factors reinforce this pattern. In many households, women earn less than their male partners, which makes a rational economic case – however unjust – for them to be the one to step back from paid employment when care needs arise. Research from the Gender Equity Policy Institute notes that because women tend to have lower earnings, they are more likely to make the trade-off between paid employment and caregiving within couples, a pattern that further deepens existing inequalities.

This division of labor is also maintained by inadequate public infrastructure. Where affordable childcare, eldercare services, and strong parental leave policies are missing, the default caregiver is almost always a woman in the household. In rural and low-income settings globally, the gap is even wider – the fewer public services available, the more unpaid hours women shoulder.

Unpaid care as invisible economic infrastructure 🔗

Unpaid care work is not a marginal activity – it is the foundation that makes all other economic activity possible. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, women perform 16 billion hours of unpaid care work every single day globally. If this labor were counted in national accounts, it could represent more than 40 percent of GDP in some countries. Yet it does not appear in GDP figures, employment statistics, or national budgets.

Oxfam estimates that women and girls carry out 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work daily, and if this work were valued at minimum wage, it would represent a contribution of at least $10.8 trillion to the global economy – more than three times the size of the entire global tech industry. In the United States alone, the National Partnership for Women & Families found that unpaid care work – two-thirds of which is performed by women – is valued at over $1 trillion annually.

Women also dominate the paid care sector, but without proportional recognition or pay. UN Women notes that around 80 percent of domestic workers are women – many of them migrants – who are frequently excluded from labor protections and are highly vulnerable to exploitation. Care, whether paid or unpaid, is work performed predominantly by women. It just rarely gets treated that way.

Economic and social impact of female caregivers 🔗

The economic consequences of women’s role as primary caregivers are severe and compounding. They do not end with the years of active caregiving – they accumulate across a woman’s entire lifetime, shaping her income, her career trajectory, her retirement security, and her social standing.

The motherhood and caregiver penalty 🔗

One of the most documented economic effects of caregiving on women is what researchers call the “motherhood penalty.” UN Women reports that in Europe, 60 percent of the gender pay gap is directly linked to motherhood – not because women become less productive, but because they reduce their paid working hours or leave employment altogether when childcare is unaffordable or parental leave is inadequate. The same dynamic plays out globally.

The numbers from the United States are stark. When women identify as parents or primary caregivers, they earn just $0.75 for every dollar earned by a male parent. The gap widens further for women of color: in 2024, the National Women’s Law Center found that women working full-time were paid just 81 cents for every dollar paid to men – with Black women earning only 65 cents on the dollar compared to white non-Hispanic men. These gaps directly reflect the disproportionate caregiving responsibilities women carry.

The toll does not stop at wages. Data from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research reveals that, on average, women lose around $295,000 over their lifetimes due to caregiving – roughly $273,000 in lost earnings and an additional $58,000 in potential retirement income. As a result, poverty rates among women over the age of 65 are significantly higher than those for men.

Social status and the devaluation of care 🔗

The social impact runs alongside the economic one. Because care work is treated as a natural extension of femininity rather than skilled labor, women who spend years as caregivers are frequently seen as less professionally serious, less ambitious, or less productive. This perception – rooted entirely in gender bias – means women re-entering the workforce after caregiving breaks face discrimination in hiring, lower starting salaries, and limited advancement opportunities.

The social invisibility of care also affects how caregiving women see themselves. When labor is unrecognized and uncompensated, it erodes a sense of economic agency. Women who spend years outside the formal workforce may find their contributions minimized even within their own households, with significant impacts on self-worth and decision-making power.

Challenges women face as caregivers 🔗

The structural challenges facing women caregivers are not isolated inconveniences – they form an interlocking system that is difficult to escape without deliberate policy intervention.

Time poverty 🔗

Time poverty refers to having so little discretionary time that basic needs – rest, personal development, civic engagement – cannot be met. For women caregivers, this is a daily reality. UN Women data shows that globally, 45 percent of working-age women are not included in the labor market because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared to just 5 percent of men. Every extra hour of unpaid care work a woman takes on reduces her chance of accessing paid work by 38 percent and cuts her likelihood of pursuing higher education by 34 percent.

The Gender Equity Policy Institute found that women overall have 13 percent less free time than men, a gap that balloons among certain groups. Young women without children have 21 percent less free time than their male counterparts – before even factoring in caregiving duties. When children are in the picture, the disparity deepens further. This time deficit limits women’s ability to pursue promotions, further education, or rest – all of which are prerequisites for economic advancement.

No compensation, no protection 🔗

Most women providing unpaid care receive no compensation, no retirement contributions, no health insurance, and no employment protections. This is not just about the present – it shapes their futures irrevocably. As the Gender Equity Policy Institute explains, women who take time out of the labor force to provide care end up with lower Social Security retirement benefits, because the system calculates retirement payouts based on years of paid employment. A woman who spends a decade as a full-time caregiver can be penalized economically for the rest of her life.

For those in paid care jobs, conditions are often not much better. Oxfam reports that women and girls working in paid care roles – as cleaners, childcare workers, nurses, or home health aides – frequently do so for poverty wages, with minimal job security and few benefits. The care sector is undervalued precisely because it has always been associated with women.

Exclusion from formal employment 🔗

Caregiving responsibilities are the primary barrier keeping women out of the formal labor market. The International Labour Organization reported in 2024 that an estimated 708 million women worldwide are outside the labor force because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared to just 40 million men in the same situation. This is not a marginal issue – it represents a systemic exclusion of women from economic participation on a global scale.

The ILO’s landmark Resolution on the care economy, adopted at the International Labour Conference in June 2024, was the first global tripartite agreement on this issue and directly highlighted the structural barriers unpaid care work creates for women’s participation, retention, and advancement in the workforce. The resolution marked international recognition that this is not a personal or private matter – it is a structural economic and policy problem.

The “sandwich generation” burden 🔗

Many women today care for both minor children and aging parents simultaneously – a reality researchers call the “sandwich generation.” Policy analysts at Capita estimate there are already 16 million sandwich generation caregivers in the United States, disproportionately concentrated among Black and Hispanic populations. As populations age globally, this burden is set to intensify, with projections showing 82 million Americans over 65 by 2050.

For women caught between these two forms of caregiving, the cumulative impact on earnings, career continuity, and mental health is significant. Research cited by Brown University economists found that daughters experience a 4 percent decline in earnings in the five years after a parent becomes ill, while sons in the same situation actually see a 1.5 percent increase in earnings – because daughters typically reduce work hours to provide care, while sons largely do not.

Policy recommendations for supporting women caregivers 🔗

The good news is that these are solvable problems. Multiple policy tools have already been tested and proven effective across different countries. What is missing is the political will to implement them at scale.

Caregiver tax credits 🔗

One of the most direct ways to acknowledge the economic value of caregiving is through tax credits that reduce caregivers’ financial burdens. The Credit for Caring Act, which has bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress, would provide eligible working family caregivers with a federal tax credit of up to $5,000 per year to help offset the costs of caring for a spouse or loved one with long-term needs. According to AARP, the average caregiver spends over $7,200 annually in out-of-pocket expenses for care – a figure that can exceed $11,500 for those caring for veterans.

The National Partnership for Women & Families advocates that these credits should be fully refundable, ensuring that low-income caregivers – who are disproportionately women, people of color, and disabled workers – can actually access the benefit. A non-refundable credit is effectively useless to someone who earns too little to owe federal income taxes.

Social security credits for unpaid caregivers 🔗

Perhaps the most structurally important reform is extending Social Security credits to unpaid caregivers. Currently, years spent out of the formal workforce caring for children or elderly relatives create gaps in a person’s earnings record, directly reducing their future retirement benefits. A policy brief from Capita argues that Social Security caregiver credits are a pragmatic solution that could help restore a measure of economic stability across women’s life course – acknowledging the work and value of caregiving within the national retirement system.

The Social Security Caregiver Credit Act, introduced in the U.S. Senate, would allow caregivers who provide at least 80 hours per month of unpaid care to receive deemed wage credits for up to 60 months, which would factor into their future Social Security benefits. The credit is designed on a progressive sliding scale so that those with lower incomes receive the most support. Countries like France, Germany, and Sweden already have versions of this system in place, as documented by the Social Security Administration, with each government financing the credits through general revenues or earmarked taxes.

Paid family and medical leave 🔗

Paid leave is a foundational tool for reducing the economic harm of caregiving. It allows workers – both women and men – to take time off for care without permanently leaving the workforce or sacrificing their earnings record. The National Academy for State Health Policy notes that paid family leave laws in eight states and Washington D.C. already allow caregivers to take time off while receiving a portion of their salary, and research shows this access meaningfully improves workforce retention for women.

Iceland provides a model worth noting: each parent receives six months of paid leave, and fathers take nearly 90 percent of theirs. Nordic countries that require fathers to use a share of parental leave – a “use it or lose it” provision – have seen meaningful increases in men’s participation in domestic caregiving, which directly eases the burden on women.

Investment in public care infrastructure 🔗

Beyond individual-level support, governments must invest in affordable childcare, eldercare services, and community-based care programs that reduce the volume of caregiving falling on individual women. The UN projects that strategic investments in the care economy could create nearly 300 million jobs globally by 2035, generating more economic growth than traditional sectors, with lower emissions. When care is adequately publicly funded, women can participate more fully in the formal workforce, and economies benefit from their productive contributions.

Research by the UN Development Programme shows that expanding access to childcare increases women’s labor force participation by approximately one percentage point initially, with this impact doubling over five years. The return on investment for care infrastructure is significant – not just for gender equity, but for overall economic productivity.

Recognizing care in policymaking spaces 🔗

Finally, policy change must be accompanied by a change in how care is counted. UN Women calls for policies that provide social protection and infrastructure to make unpaid work visible, create more paid jobs in the care economy, and promote an equal distribution of care responsibilities between men and women, households, and the state. Care workers – paid and unpaid – must also be represented in the spaces where labor policy and economic decisions are made.

Until the systems that govern wages, retirement, taxation, and public spending are redesigned to reflect the true cost and value of care, women will continue to subsidize economies with their time, health, and earning power – invisibly, and without adequate return.

What do you think? If unpaid care work performed by women were fully counted in GDP and retirement systems, how might it change the way governments and societies prioritize caregiving policies? And given that caregiving cuts across every income level, race, and geography, why has it taken so long for policymakers to treat it as the economic emergency it is?

References

1. https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-what-is-unpaid-care-work-and-how-does-it-power-the-economy
2. https://thegepi.org/the-free-time-gender-gap/
3. https://social.desa.un.org/world-summit-2025/blog/invisible-yet-indispensable-why-the-world-runs-on-womens-unpaid-care-work
4. https://www.oxfam.org/en/not-all-gaps-are-created-equal-true-value-care-work
5. https://nationalpartnership.org/news_post/new-analysis-americans-unpaid-care-work-worth-more-than-1-trillion-each-year/
6. https://allwork.space/2024/02/motherhood-penalty-vs-fatherhood-bonus-a-closer-look-at-the-gender-pay-gap-in-2024/
7. https://nwlc.org/resource/nwlc-resources-on-poverty-income-and-health-insurance/
8. https://iwpr.org/care-conference-2024-opening/
9. https://thegepi.org/reports/GEPI-Free-Time-Gender-Gap-Report.pdf
10. https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/unpaid-care-work-prevents-708-million-women-participating-labour-market
11. https://capita.org/publication/social-security-caregiver-credits-a-missing-pillar-of-family-policy/
12. https://beformidable.com/p/caregiver-penalty-exacerbates-wage-gap
13. https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/financial-legal/info-2024/credit-caring-act.html
14. https://nationalpartnership.org/report/missed-opportunities-to-expand-paid-leave-caregiving-supports-through-tax-code/
15. https://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-schneider-meng-introduce-legislation-to-help-caregivers-receive-social-security-credit
16. https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v71n4/v71n4p61.html
17. https://nashp.org/financial-and-workplace-security-for-family-caregivers/
18. https://www.undp.org/latin-america/blog/missing-piece-valuing-womens-unrecognized-contribution-economy
19. https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/csw61/redistribute-unpaid-work