Why Childcare puts women at a disadvantage
"As woman you can bear a child. That is beautiful ... but it also means that you aren't equal"
Childcare is an increasingly difficult problem in todays society. And like many problems, it mainly affects women. It is still common, that a majority of the so called Care-Work (childcare, housekeeping, elder care) is performed by women. So far so good. The problem is that often times this kind of work is under paid and undervalued. And if Care work is performed for members of your own family, for example your children or your elderly parents, it isn't paid at all. Despite that women do three times more unpaid care work than men and make up about 70% of the paid care work- force. To put the massive amount of work that women do for free, if all women were paid just minimum wage for their unpaid care work, they would have made $10.9 trillion combined. To summarize, it is expected from women to do tons of labour for free. This forces many women to work part time or not work at all, because of overwhelming unpaid work. The result: poverty and elder poverty, due to unpaid care work not being considered when it comes to pensions.
What do women thing about this?
I asked 7 women in two focus group interviews about this issue and as the title suggests, many women have strong opinions about this issue. When asked about discrimination they faced in their work environment, many listed childcare and the resulting impediments.
" ...the maternity leave and childcare setting me back in my pension, that was the main form of discrimination that I faced. "
Another big factor and an instance of gender discrimination was the perception, that paid care work, like teacher, kindergarten teacher etc., is not properly respected and paid in our society.
"our work not being valued as much and especially not being paid as much that's a big part."
"if it had a higher rank, so to speak, you would also have better general conditions as a kindergarten teacher"
When asked about what companies should do about gender discrimination, one wish was very prevalent.
"I think it would be good if there were something like company kindergartens. "
The main benefits that could come from company kindergartens, that were mentioned, were less stress for parents, especially mothers and flexibility. More company kindergartens and more kindergartens in general would also mean that more women could work and gain financial independence. But for this to work, more focus has to be laid on that field. Meaning more funding and better conditions for workers in terms of respect and pay.
"For other things they have money. "
And that these measures will improve the current situation surrounding unpaid care work is not only speculation, as examples from other countries show. For example the smallest differences between women and men, when it comes to unpaid care work, are found in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, where social safety net programs provide care for children and older people.