Topic: 2024-Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Country: United States of America
Delegate Name: Sophia Piotrowski
Until around the 20th century, few types of work beyond unpaid care for their own
children at home were viewed as socially acceptable for white women.1 However, women of
color were employed—or enslaved—in domestic work, including child care for other families’
children.
Today, more women are in the labor force than ever before, in a range of jobs far wider
than their ancestors may have imagined. Despite this progress, evidence suggests that many
women remain unable to achieve their goals. The gap in earnings between women and men,
although smaller than it was years ago, is still significant; women continue to be
underrepresented in certain industries and occupations; and too many women struggle to
combine aspirations for work and family.
2
In the United States, women spend considerably more
time than men over their lifetime doing unpaid household and care work. The unequal
distribution of this work—work that is essential for families and societies to thrive—not only
limits women’s career choices and economic empowerment, but also affects their overall health
and well-being.3 The estimated employment-related costs for mothers providing unpaid care
averages $295,000 over a lifetime, based on the 2021 U.S. dollar value.4 Men spend an average
of 6.5 percent of their day (or about 1.6 hours) on unpaid care work and women an average of
nearly 18 percent (4.3 hours). Women spend nearly three times as much of their day on unpaid
care work as men.
Although in some ways the United States has made great progress toward gender equality
there is still a lot of work to be done. The US looks to invest in child care infrastructure that
allows women to have a real choice about whether to take time out of the paid workforce to
provide child care, support flexibility in working hours and locations, guarantee paid family and
medical leave, and structure leave policies to encourage men’s participation, provide paid sick
days, close the gender wage gap, provide care credits for Social Security and improve estimates
of value of unpaid care work. Lastly, the US looks to make the public more aware of this work’s
critical importance to the nation’s economy. These solutions will hopefully make women need to
do less unpaid care and work and spend more time with what they want to do in life.
4 “READOUT: US Department of Labor Report Finds Impact of Caregiving on Mother’s Wages Reduces Lifetime
Earnings by 15 Percent.” DOL, www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/wb/wb20230511.
3 Hess, Cynthia, et al. Providing Unpaid Household and Care Work in the United States: Uncovering Inequality.
Jan. 2020.
2 Yellen, Janet. “The History of Women’s Work and Wages and How It Has Created Success for Us All.” Brookings,
The Brookings Institution, May 2020,
www.brookings.edu/articles/the-history-of-womens-work-and-wages-and-how-it-has-created-success-for-us-all/.
1 “Undervalued: A Brief History of Women’s Care Work and Child Care Policy in the United States.” National
Women’s Law Center,
nwlc.org/resource/undervalued-a-brief-history-of-womens-care-work-and-child-care-policy-in-the-united-states/.
