Explainer: Unpaid care, the work that has no price tag
Tasks like childcare and household management sustain society but fall outside the wage system.
What you need to know:
- Unpaid care work is the cooking, cleaning, childcare and other household tasks that receive no pay or formal recognition.
- In Kenya, women spend over three extra hours each day on these duties compared with men, limiting their time for paid work.
Every morning, millions of women across Kenya prepare meals, organise households, and care for family members before starting their "official" work day. This invisible labour – cooking, cleaning, washing, mending clothes, collecting water and firewood, and caring for children and the elderly – forms the backbone of our economy, yet remains unrecognised and unpaid.
The numbers
According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, women spend three hours and 36 minutes more on unpaid care and domestic work than men daily. Working women still spend three hours and 18 minutes more per day on unpaid care work than working men. Globally, the International Labour Organisation reports that three-quarters of all unpaid care work is undertaken by women and girls.
Oxfam's 2019 Household Care Survey in Kenya revealed an even starker picture: women spent approximately five hours per day on care as a primary activity and over 11 hours daily on any care work, compared to men's one hour and under three hours respectively. Women were more than 20 percent more likely than men to assume childcare responsibilities in the previous 24 hours.
Economic impact
Evidence from Kenya generated by Oxfam shows men spent twice as many hours per day on paid work than women, driven partly by women's unpaid care commitments.
Dan Bazira, UN Women's Deputy Country Representative, emphasises this isn't just social but economic: "It is an economic issue. Overlooking unpaid care work means economic development is being affected. Women should be engaged, as they are at the forefront of family and society's development."
Care work becomes particularly burdensome where infrastructure is poor and public services are limited. Bazira advocates for robust investments: "The government machinery needs to allocate resources to counties to ensure there are early childhood development centres, support structures for markets, and other provisions. Once this is done, women will have more options to select other economic livelihood options."
Policy solutions
The international community recognised this challenge through the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Sustainable Development Goal 5, which commits to recognising and valuing unpaid care work through public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies.
Catherine Umija, a nominated Member of County Assembly in Laikipia, advocates for monetising unpaid care work. "It is my hope that the Cabinet will find it fit to approve the National Care Policy so that care work can be recognised by national and county governments and included in Kenya's gross domestic product. It's high time that unpaid care work is recognised and appreciated."
While acknowledging financial constraints, she suggests practical alternatives: "The government may fail to pay for care work, but there are things it can do to lessen the unpaid care burden by ensuring water is connected and roads are fixed."
Progress and framework
Kenya achieved a milestone in July when stakeholders validated the Draft National Care Policy. The state department of gender announced: "Kenya's care economy has achieved a major milestone following the landmark validation of the Draft National Care Policy, setting the stage for processes leading to its adoption by the Cabinet."
The policy proposes establishing well-equipped childcare centres, elderly care facilities, and caregiver training programs, focusing on compensating cleaning, domestic work, and care for the elderly, sick, or children.
The International Labour Organisation's 5R Framework provides a roadmap through: reducing unpaid care by investing in services and infrastructure; redistributing tasks more equitably between genders and between households and public sectors; recognising unpaid care work in decision-making and budgeting; rewarding care work with decent pay and conditions; and representing care providers in political and economic decisions.
Globally, women spend two to three times more hours daily on unpaid work than men. While no country has fully monetised unpaid care work, some like Australia have studied its monetary value, and Latin American countries have implemented supportive policies.
