98% of the country’s carers are women, study finds

SOME 98% of carers in Ireland are women and their work is largely invisible and undervalued, a new report has found.

The study by ActionAid Ireland and the National Women’s Council also shows 80% of paid care workers are women, but that this is often low-paid and precarious work. In Ireland, women do twice as much unpaid care and housework as men – an average of 28 hours for women against 14 for men.

Globally 75% of unpaid carers are women.

‘Unpaid care responsibilities over the life course often result in women working fewer hours and in lower-paid jobs, or not participating in the paid workforce at all,’ the report said.

The study also calls on the Government to introduce policies that help redistribute more care responsibilities to men within households. It also calls

‘Invisible and unmeasured’

for social welfare to be ‘radically reformed’ to recognise women’s work in the home.

It is estimated that some 2.3billion people across the globe now need care, which is 200million more than in 2015.

Georgia Grogan, a lone parent and carer to a daughter with complex needs, who participated in the report, said ‘the policies and rules involved in care are often degrading, and they perpetuate outdated ideas that women are simply homemakers’. She added: ‘I can’t stay in education without working, and I can’t find meaningful, sustainable work without education.’

Karol Balfe, CEO of ActionAid Ireland, said: ‘The large majority of care work that women carry out globally is not recognised as having any economic value as it remains largely hidden, invisible and unmeasured.’