Topic: 2024-Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Country: Egypt
Delegate Name: Ella Woods
Egypt
UN Women
Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Egypt believes that women should be empowered to strive for an education despite the care that may be expected of them. Women perform roughly 75% of the unpaid care internationally. A fact that often goes unnoticed, therefore one of the most overlooked solutions to the problem of unpaid care and domestic work, is simply increasing awareness of the problem and changing societal norms. In addition to changing societal norms, Egypt proposes investing in physical infrastructure to reduce the amount of time it takes women to perform unpaid care. Improving access to electricity, running water, sanitation services, and public transport can reduce the amount of time tasks take to complete. Leaving more time for education and a career. In 2018, it was estimated that more than 10 million hours of domestic work could be saved every year with infrastructure improvements. The Internal Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that households relying on firewood for cooking spend 1.4 hours a day collecting firewood, in addition to cooking with inefficient stoves.
In 2017 Egypt ranked 143 out of 153 countries in labour force participation. Only 21 per cent of working-age women are in the working force due to domestic work that hinders their ability to work. Egypt has implemented the National Strategy for Women Empowerment, a program that focuses on recognizing unpaid care and promoting shared responsibility in the household by 2030. In alignment with the UN’s SDG 5, Egypt has developed the National Action Plan for the SDGs, which incorporates initiatives to promote gender equality, improve access to services, and reduce the gender gap in unpaid work. This includes promoting women’s access to the labour market and recognizing the value of unpaid care work. Despite these efforts, cultural norms and a lack of awareness of the problem still hinder progress. Also, Egypt has implemented no formal policies dealing with childcare or access to infrastructure to promote gender equality.
To combat the problem of unpaid care and domestic work Egypt suggests a policy that will balance unpaid care and domestic work in the home, by raising awareness of the problem, as well as supporting infrastructure that will help reduce time spent on domestic work. Governments can raise awareness of the gender divide in domestic care with policies that encourage men to contribute to the work. Egypt suggests raising the amount of time father’s get off of work for paternity leave. Creating a policy that increases access to child care so mothers can continue their education and careers is also suggested. In Kenya, mothers who receive subsidized child care are 17% more likely to be employed than mothers who do not. Egypt is also proposing a policy that helps women get access to infrastructure such as running water, electricity and public transport. It is important to enable women to save time on tasks they perform because that time provides significantly better health, economic opportunities, education and leisure. The program’s overall goal should be to see women spending less time on unpaid care because of a larger percentage of it being performed by men, improved access to childcare, and better infrastructure.
Egypt is looking forward to collaborating with delegates from UN Women.
Works Cited
Enabling Women’s Economic Empowerment: New Approaches to Unpaid Care Work in Developing Countries, OECD, 2019.
Selwaness, Irene, and Imane Helmy. “THE CARE ECONOMY IN EGYPT: THE ROAD TOWARDS RECOGNIZING, REDUCING AND REDISTRIBUTING UNPAID CARE WORK.” UN WOMEN.
