Topic: 2024-Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Country: Spain
Delegate Name: Liberty Scanlin
Topic: Addressing Unpaid Care and Domestic work in Spain
Country: Spain
Committee: UN Women
Delegate Name: Liberty Scanlin
School: New Prairie High School
The pressing matter of addressing the gender imbalance behind unpaid care and
domestic work have become increasingly relevant in today’s society. Ever since the
COVID-19 Pandemic, the amount of unpaid care and domestic work has only grown.
Unpaid care and domestic work has become integrated within society, and historically
women account for a majority of that work. Spain recognizes the importance of fixing
the ratio in order to take the pressure off of women.
The Spanish Government understands the role gender inequality plays in this imbalance
of unpaid care and domestic work. Pre-existing gender roles, ones that favor men, fuel
this imbalance. This leaves women with less time to devote towards getting an education
and generating their own income. Understanding the severity of this issue, the Spanish
government is committed to working towards helping support SDG 5 Gender Equality to
in turn help regulate the amount of unpaid care and domestic work being provided by
women. Spain has enacted a series of policies with this in mind, and believes that the
issue of gender inequality must be addressed internationally and collaborated on to fix
the amount of unpaid care and domestic work being provided by women.
Spain has three main proposals aimed at fixing the issue of unpaid care and domestic
work. The first one aims at continuing preexisting family policies implemented in Spain
that allow more time for parental leave for fathers. These efforts have made strides in
helping equalize the amount of time men and women spend on unpaid care and
domestic work. Continuing them will only help further decrease the gap between hours
men and women spend on unpaid care and domestic work. A second program Spain
would like to continue to facilitate is WIPO’s (World Intellectual Property Organization)
educational programs for women. The educational program focuses on protecting IPs
and helps empower women who are considering a career as an artisan. This continued
focus on education helps encourage women to find a career opportunity that grants
them an income. These continued policies offer a solution to the issue of unpaid care
and domestic work. Another proposed solution to this issue would be to focus on
increasing access to childcare facilities. Implementing more childcare programs would
enable women to have more free time to work towards establishing a career for
themselves.
Spain is looking forward to collaborating with delegates from UN Women to discuss
international efforts to address unpaid care and domestic work.
Works Cited
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