Women in Latin America and the Caribbean - Cepal

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of care on women mounts up. This unseen work —which institutions cannot do and which has to be
provided personally because it is emotional in nature— has repercussions for the organization of labour.
The term “care economy” refers to the distribution of care services, and includes both the
providers and the recipients. The latter may be either dependent —the elderly, the sick and children— or
active in the labour market. On the provision side, there are four agents: the State, the market, civil
society (the “third sector”) and the family. In the case of this last, however, the prevailing gender system
means that it is not entirely accurate to say that families are responsible for the care of children or older
adults. Rather, this responsibility falls directly on women as unpaid workers (Rico, 2005).
Throughout history, four types of institutions have been involved in the provision of care: civil
society institutions (churches, volunteers and foundations), the State, the market and families, with
families invariably playing the greatest role. In all four cases, most caregiving —whether inside or outside
the home, paid or unpaid— is done by women. As societies become more complex, institutionalized care
mechanisms improve, while in less modern societies it is care in the home that will predominate
(Giménez, 2003).
When the State provides care services, especially in the areas of health and of basic and preschool
education, women are heavily represented in terms of numbers and disadvantaged in terms of pay. When
services are purchased in the market they are still regarded as women’s work, although the proportion of
men participating rises as their income-generating potential increases. 26
The growing concern about care work is linked to the rise of certain developments, including: (i)
the steadily increasing participation of women in the labour market; (ii) unemployment and exclusion
among particular groups of people, heightening dependence on unpaid work; (iii) crises, business cycles
and new forms of employment in the informal economy, strengthening the connection between activities
performed within and outside the market; and (iv) challenges deriving from new demographic structures
and changes in the family (Benería, 2006). In addition, there are other factors such as the increased
demand for care resulting from the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the Caribbean and some Latin American
countries, which has not been sufficiently acknowledged or studied.
Like any other work, caregiving requires time and knowledge. Its peculiarity is that it is
relationship-based, whether performed in the family or outside it. Within the family, its “unavoidable and
disinterested” nature gives it a moral and emotional dimension. Elsewhere, care work is characterized by
a relationship of service and assistance. The unifying factor in the notion of care is that it is a task
performed essentially by women, whether within the family or outside it in the form of personal services
provision, so that it has been claimed that “caring and femininity are two sides of the same coin”
(Batthyany, 2004, p. 51).
26
A recent ECLAC study containing an in-depth analysis of employment in the health sector in Argentina found
that larger numbers of men were entering nursing, an activity traditionally carried out by women. Three factors
accounting for the increased involvement of men were clearly identified: (i) the employment crisis, which led
men to seek work in this sector; (ii) the professionalization of nursing, with higher-level academic degrees being
demanded and pay improving as a result; and (iii) changes in the way the profession was perceived (Pautassi,
2006; Rovere, 2006).