Topic: 2024-Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Country: Canada
Delegate Name: Sage England
Unpaid Care and Domestic Work is work done in the home by family members for maintenance and well-being of family without pay, such as child care, cooking, and cleaning. Globally, and in Canada, women perform the majority of this work, carrying out two and a half times more unpaid household care work than men. Their contributions are undervalued and underappreciated. Unpaid Care and Domestic Work is valued to be 10-39% of the Gross Domestic Product in the Dominion of Canada, and can contribute more to the economy than certain paid labor. It is valued at over 10 trillion dollars worldwide. As a result, women around the world face difficulties and have little time to obtain an education or work in paid labor. Women’s unpaid labor in and outside the home sustains families across the world, and it is essential to Canadian families, communities, and society to function, but is unfairly placed only on women to perform. The Dominion of Canada, as well as UN Women aims to improve gender equality, women’s empowerment, and labor market participation in The Dominion of Canada by solving this issue. The United Nations has addressed this issue in Resolution 66/130 ‘Women in Development’ to attempt to solve this issue.
In The Dominion of Canada, Unpaid Care and Domestic Work is just as expansiveof an issue as it is everywhere else in the world. The Dominion of Canada has a number of policies on Unpaid Care and Domestic work in the ‘Women in Development’ resolution, including recognition and value of underpaid work (integrating unpaid labor into national accounts), redistribution of care responsibilities (responsibilities shared between men and women), provision of public services and infrastructure (Call for investments in public services and infrastructure to reduce the burden of unpaid care), social protection measures (Caregiver allowances, tax credits, and pensions for unpaid caregivers), educational and advocacy campaigns (discussion about the need for public awareness on gender stereotypes and unpaid work), and data collection and reporting (encourage member states to improve data collection on Unpaid Care and Domestic Work). Globally, The Dominion of Canada has developed a programme that addresses Unpaid Care and Domestic Work, founded on Canada’s ‘Feminist International Assistance Policy’, which speaks about gender equality around the world to create an inclusive, united world. The programme seeks to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, the well-being of children and those cared for, the economy, and women’s access to the labor force as well as decent work opportunities. To meet these objectives, The Dominion of Canada will focus on the development and implementation of this programme to ensure women’s empowerment and equality is addressed by creating stand-alone initiatives to promote Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in a gender-transformative way to benefit everyone, broadening the Canadian perspective on Gender Equality. Conventions and resolutions that address the issue of Unpaid Care and Domestic Work include the ‘Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women’ (CEDAW) (1979), the ‘International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’ (ICESCR) (1966), ‘Resolution 66/130: Women in Development’ (2012), ‘Resolution 64/217: World Survey on the Role of Women in Development’ (2009),’Resolution 58/142: Improvement of the Situation of Women in Rural Areas’ (2003), and ‘Resolution 70/1: Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ (2015). Canadian officials such as Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Katrina Chen, the Former Minister of State for Child Care in British Columbia, and Katrina Gould, the Minister of Children, Family, and Social Development, have all spoken on the topic of Unpaid Care and Domestic Work. International officials who spoke on the topic of Unpaid Care and Domestic Work include Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Former Executive Director of UN Women, Michelle Bachelet, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Jacinda Ardern, Former Prime Minister of New Zealand. The Dominion of Canada stands united with the United Nations, the United Nations Economic and Social Council, the International Labour Organization, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, G7, G20, The Commonwealth of Nations, and The Organisation of American States in addressing the issue of Unpaid Care and Domestic Work. An upwards of 2 million people worldwide engage in Unpaid Care and Domestic Work, women in many countries spending more than 50% of their time on care work tasks. In the Dominion of Canada, 60% of women in the country, aged 25 to 54 spend an average of 3.7 hours per day on unpaid work (such as child care, housework, and eldercare), compared to men’s average of 1.9 hours, with more than 5 million Canadians providing unpaid care. Unpaid care work in Canada is estimated to represent $320 billion annually, or about 10% of Canada’s GDP. It is important that The Dominion of Canada and the UN address this topic to solve this issue, as it endangers human rights, as well as women’s rights in the context of equality and equal opportunities between men and women.
Although progress has been made globally in addressing Unpaid Care and Domestic work, we have yet to see the impacting effects of the resolutions made. The Dominion of Canada declares the cruciality to bring awareness to Unpaid Care and Domestic Work, implementing changes that recognize the value of unpaid work, redistributing care between men and women, and asking citizens to invest in public care such as affordable childcare and elder care. It is prominent that actions to promote equality and put an end to Unpaid Care and Domestic Work be implemented for an equal and united world. The Dominion of Canada is on its way to reaching these goals, and is willing to help other countries develop calls to action to achieve the goal of equality worldwide.
