Providing local leadership and implementation of the internationally agreed development goal SDG5 on Gender Equality

Future of Work debate has been more centered on robots than on workers. The excessive focus on automation and technology’s potential displacement of jobs has neglected other trends that are also re-shaping the labor market as we know it. Digitalization and the gig economy, demographic changes and the associated care crisis, and the demand of new skills are equally important and will have a major impact on how we understand and carry out work. Critically, evidence suggests that these trends have specific implications for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

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Gender economic equity is an imperative for the global economy, including the countries represented by the G20. From a human right’s perspective, there is little question that closing gender gaps is the right thing to do. Moreover, a growing body of work argues that reducing gender inequality is economically beneficial, making the case that encouraging female economic participation, improving access to quality child care, and equitable professional opportunities in the job market can yield significant economic returns.

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This document outlines the position of a group of research and non-governmental organizations on care needs and care policies in the G20 countries. It provides a summary of why addressing care needs is fundamental for women’s economic empowerment and labour market participation and frames these policies in terms of protecting the right to care and be cared for. We call for more effort to recognize, reduce, redistribute and represent unpaid care work and to protect the rights of paid care workers. We provide a number of examples of successful policy and programme initiatives for G20 countries to consider expanding in their own domestic policy agenda as well as their development assistance to further women’s economic empowerment globally.

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