A 'Macro' View on Equal Sharing of Responsibilities Between Women and Men

• Author: V. Esquivel
• Publication Date: Oct 2008

How can macro-economic thinking and policy help to advance the equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men? This paper seeks to suggest that, in relation to care, complex processes of cultural and economic mutual determination are in place with both cultural and economic 'results'. Care is necessary, yet undervalued; not intrinsically gendered as a category, yet women bear a disproportionate share of the costs. The paper argues that micro-level approaches to the re-distribution of care costs may not be viable in developing countries, as they will experience overall 'care deficits' i.e. the total available State and private resources to provide care are insufficient. Macro level thinking and responses can help, if they focus on the absolute levels of well-being that should be achieved in any given society, on the one hand, and on who bears the costs of providing care, on the other. Time-use data reveals how poor macro-economic policies, such as structural adjustment programs, have made gender inequalities in care responsibilities worse. Women have provided a disproportionally high level of unpaid care work that the State has elected it will not. Yet analysis shows that 'efficiency gains' would be made if this high and often hidden cost was actually provided by 'public' infrastructure. The paper defines two broad categories (macro-levels and micro-levels) of policies that could be put in place to fill care deficits and increase gender equality, and approaches for evaluating them. For example:

? The State has a fundamental responsibility to provide minimum care services
? Direct job creation (of decent work), in particular in sectors that reduce unpaid care work burdens, could contribute to fill care deficits and provide income to workers
? Social policies should be designed to contribute to tackle gender inequalities in care burdens, instead of taking them for granted and building on them; and to truly alter the distribution of entitlements and income.