Μake us preferred on Google In theory, caring for loved ones — children, elderly parents or relatives with health conditions — is something we do from the heart. The word “obligation” seems out of place alongside “care.” After all, if we do not look after the people we love, who will? And who will look after us if not our own families?
The expression “care economy” can seem equally incongruous. When care is associated with love, concern and affection, putting a monetary value on it can feel difficult. Yet, as a service, care is bought and sold, provided and delivered, with or without payment. It has a cost and generates economic value.
In a welfare state, providing care for citizens — through support services for children, older people and those with chronic illnesses — is primarily the responsibility of the state. That is, after all, one of the reasons we pay taxes and social security contributions, which are deducted from our salaries.
In the free market, care services represent a vast field of economic activity, ranging from organized facilities to an extensive gray area of underpaid, partially insured or undeclared work. In developing countries, and elsewhere, the care economy is largely informal and unpaid, and it is almost universally understood to be primarily women’s responsibility.
Care Within the Family
Within families, care is something members are supposed to share. Yet even in countries at the forefront of gender equality, such as Sweden, women spend 29% more time on unpaid work than men: 220 minutes a day compared with 171, according to an earlier OECD study.
The same study found that across 23 European countries, women spend an average of 262 minutes a day — almost four and a half hours — on unpaid work, 83% or roughly two hours more than men. Care work accounts for the largest share of unpaid labor.
In Greece, the gap between women and men in unpaid work reaches 173%, the second-highest rate after Portugal, where it stands at 242%.
Care and Employment in Greece
According to a recent survey by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), one in three workers in Greece struggles to balance employment with family care responsibilities, whether for children or dependent adults.
This is the issue at the heart of the “Care and Work” event, taking place at the WHEN Hub, 29 Sokratous Street in Athens, on Wednesday, November 4, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The event is co-organized by WHEN, an organization dedicated to women’s professional empowerment, and Challedu. The latter takes its name from the words “Challenge” and “Education” and is a nonprofit organization focused on researching and developing educational and social games.
Both organizations took part in the European CAREdiZO project, alongside partners from three other EU member states: Cyprus, Bulgaria and Lithuania.
The project’s aim is to eliminate the gender gap in the distribution of care responsibilities by supporting organizations and businesses through innovative digital training and networking tools. In Greece, the focus is on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are the country’s largest employers, accounting for almost 85% of jobs.
Small Businesses and Care Responsibilities
As part of the project, a survey of approximately 100 employees examined how care responsibilities are divided between men and women. Its findings offer valuable insight into patterns that may escape the attention of ELSTAT. Overall, 85.1% of respondents said they had care responsibilities.
Among those responsible for caring for children, the figures were relatively balanced: 60% were women and 40% men. A similar pattern emerged in caring for family members with disabilities or chronic illnesses, with women accounting for 55.6% and men for 44.4%.
The figures changed significantly when it came to caring for elderly parents: 81.8% of those with such responsibilities were women, compared with just 18.2% of men.
Meanwhile, responsibility for caring for infants and toddlers fell entirely on women.
Unequal Roles
The majority of survey participants (89.2%) said they had a spouse or partner.
Not a single man described himself as the sole caregiver, compared with 10.3% of women. Meanwhile, 41.7% of women said they played the primary role in providing care, compared with just 8% of men.
Source: CAREdiZO
How Care Affects Employment
Care responsibilities had a significant impact on the career choices of 60.4% of women, compared with just 20% of men.
However, 56% of men said care had affected their professional careers to some extent, compared with 27.1% of women. In other words, although men spend fewer hours providing care and take on fewer responsibilities, they are far more likely than women to feel they have made career “sacrifices.”
Just 12% of women said their care responsibilities had not affected their professional careers, compared with 25% of men.
A Gap in Perceptions
Another difference lies in how men and women perceive their respective roles. Only 41.7% of women believe care responsibilities are shared equally between partners. Among men, the figure rises to 68%, revealing a clear gap between the sexes in their understanding of what equality means.
A Second Job After Work
For almost one in two women, the hours spent caring for others amount to a second job. Some 18.7% devote between 31 and 40 hours a week to care, compared with just 4% of men.
One in four women (25%) effectively works overtime caring for children, parents or other relatives, spending more than 40 hours a week on these responsibilities. Among men, the corresponding figure is 12%.
Why Is Care Not Shared Equally?
Some 96.6% of women and 85.7% of men believe care responsibilities are not distributed equally.
A striking 93.1% identified social norms and traditional attitudes as the main reason for the unequal division of care work.
The second most frequently cited factor was the lack of support services, mentioned by 72.4% of respondents. Low wages and limited household income were identified by 37.9%, while 35.6% believed the imbalance was a matter of personal choice.
What Can Be Done?
Asked what changes could help achieve a more equal distribution of care responsibilities, the majority of survey participants (79.3%) highlighted the need for affordable care services. Increasing flexible working options for both men and women was the second most popular response, selected by 71.3%.
Encouraging men to take on a greater share of care responsibilities was also a frequent answer, cited by 67.8%. Other proposals included supportive workplace policies (66.7%), equal parental leave policies (65.5%) and the availability of care services (60.9%).
Finally, 57.5% of respondents selected public awareness campaigns promoting an equal distribution of care responsibilities.
