The workers we don’t pay or see are grandmothers, mothers, daughters — the women who take care of children, look after ill family members, and give dignity to the elderly. 

To do this vital care work, they give up formal employment with pay cheques. 

“Our system is designed as if women didn’t do care work. And that forces us to choose between raising children or working,” said Meredith Cortés Bravo, a founder of a grassroots organization in Chile that supports these women.

But in Latin America, this is slowly changing — a care revolution is underway that is asking governments and employers to consider what it would mean to recognize, protect and fund care work. 

“Care is essential for every family and for every community. The revolution is to make it visible, to make it valuable and to invest,” María Noel Vaeza, UN Women’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, told UN News.

The most off-track goal

The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development is convening at UN Headquarters in New York in order to discuss progress – or lack thereof – towards the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While 18 per cent of the Goals are on track for 2030, achieving gender equality remains the Goal that is most off-track. Discriminatory laws and gender-based norms persist worldwide, with women dedicating approximately twice as many hours to unpaid care work as men.   

“Gender equality is not a side issue. It is central to peace, it is central to justice, and it is central to sustainable development and the credibility of the multilateral system itself,” Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women said at an HLPF session this week.

The revolution is underway

Before the revolution began, Latin America faced a care crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Ms. Vaeza.  There was not enough care available outside of the home for sick people, forcing society to recognize that taking care of others is work. 

“Unpaid care work is what keeps the economy running, but it’s unfair because it’s invisible, undervalued and underfunded. We must recognize it,” Ms. Vaeza said. 

In Latin America, 17 are countries actively working to redesign their care economies, ensuring more protections and income for the women and men who provide this work. 

“The biggest shift has been putting care at the centre of public policy, not just academic debates,” said Virginia Gontijo, UN Women programme lead in Brazil.

This work is already bearing fruit. 

In Chile, one of the region’s most ambitious care systems is already delivering in 151 municipalities, with the ultimate goal of reaching 75,000 people in the next few years.  

UN Women is working with State governments and civil society groups to ensure that these new systems, policies and laws are shaped by and for caregivers.

A care system in Brazil worked closely with a care activist network to train caregivers in labour rights and promote long-term professional development.  

“I never felt my work was valued. But after this project, I feel better prepared to take part in political discussions and make our voices heard,” said Lucileide Mafra Reis, a domestic worker activist in Brazil.

A woman and young girl in Mexico.

Care is a human right

Mexico and Peru have taken a more rights-based approach to care, codifying it as a basic human right. 

While the international community has yet to make a similar guarantee, Ms. Vaeza said that the human rights framework is an exceptionally effective one — it restores dignity and recognizes that care is a fundamental part of human life trajectories, from birth to death.

“If you say that care is a human right, it means that the government and the state have to provide support,” she Ms. Vaeza.  

For Aideé Zamorano González — a mother who founded Mama Godin, an organization in Mexico which evaluates the impact of care policies on women — it is equally as important that employers protect women’s right to do care work. 

This means ensuring that workplaces have policies that are supportive of mothers as workers, such as schedules that allow them to drop their children off at school.

For her, these sorts of policies are crucial for women’s rights and particularly for their freedom and autonomy.

“You have to be able to rule your life,” Ms. Zamorano González told UN News. 

Beyond just autonomy, however, it is also about safety. If a woman can make her own money — and therefore, her own decisions — she can leave abusive relationships and avoid economic exploitation. 

“Every other type of violence depends on the economic power that you have. If you have the ability to make your own decisions and own money, you are safer,” said Ms. Zamorano González. 

An economic investment

Changes to legal classifications and governmental support for care work not only benefit the caregivers but also promote economic growth across societies. 

“[Care] is an investment, a strategic investment for social justice, for gender equality and for sustainable development,” Ms. Vaeza said.

She noted that dedicating government funds to paying caregivers will return the investment threefold — both by increasing caregivers’ purchasing power and by generating tax revenue. 

In Chile and Colombia, new care systems are estimated to contribute 25.6 per cent and 19.6 percent respectively to their national GDPs, according to UN Women.

“When you invest in a women’s organization, you strengthen a living network, a tree with many branches that reaches places no office or institutional programme ever could,” Ms. Bravo said. 

Export the revolution

Latin America’s progress on care is a model for other regions around the world, Ms. Vaeza said, and demonstrates the importance of changing legal frameworks for women and girls. 

“It’s extremely important that this revolution be exported. It’s an investment, a strategic investment for social justice, for gender equality and for sustainable development,” she said. 

But while the revolution is ongoing, Ms. Zamorano González underlined the importance of economic empowerment for women as a means to protect their own rights even when laws and policies fall short. 

“We are under capitalism, so while we change the system, let’s play the game. Let’s get our own means to have freedom,” she said.