Notes to broadcasters
According to UN Women, care work “consists of activities and relations to meet the physical, psychological, and emotional needs of adults and children, old and young, frail and able-bodied. It includes direct caregiving activities related to caring for children, the elderly, people with illnesses, and people with disabilities, as well as indirect or domestic work such as cooking, cleaning, and collecting water, food and firewood … Unpaid care work refers to the services provided by individuals within a household or community without receiving any monetary compensation for the benefits of its members. Most unpaid care work takes place within families. Unpaid care work also occurs at the community level for people outside the home (friends, neighbours, and community members).”
In sub-Saharan Africa, women spend 3.4 times more time on unpaid care work than their male counterparts, according to UN Women. Women and girl’s unpaid care work responsibilities pose significant barriers to their economic, social, educational, and leadership opportunities. Women are often challenged with time poverty, particularly when sourcing paid care is not possible.
This not only impacts women’s overall well-being but also reduces the quality of care provided to both caregivers and recipients of care, while also hampering their productivity in both paid and unpaid work. The issue goes beyond individual households to affect whole societies.
According to a recent time use study in Kenya, people aged 15 years and above spend an average of three hours on unpaid work, but women spend approximately five times as much time as men on unpaid domestic and care work. The Kenyan government is in the process of drafting a care policy that will help to recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work in the country.
In this program, we will be learning more about unpaid care work. To better understand the topic, we will hear from Alex Aura, who works for the private sector as a specialist on economic empowerment for women and youth. We shall also hear from two women, one from rural Kenya and the other from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city. They give us their experience as unpaid caregivers. The script is based on these interviews.
According to UN Women, care work “consists of activities and relations to meet the physical, psychological, and emotional needs of adults and children, old and young, frail and able-bodied. It includes direct caregiving activities related to caring for children, the elderly, people with illnesses, and people with disabilities, as well as indirect or domestic work such as cooking, cleaning, and collecting water, food and firewood … Unpaid care work refers to the services provided by individuals within a household or community without receiving any monetary compensation for the benefits of its members. Most unpaid care work takes place within families. Unpaid care work also occurs at the community level for people outside the home (friends, neighbours, and community members).”
In sub-Saharan Africa, women spend 3.4 times more time on unpaid care work than their male counterparts, according to UN Women. Women and girl’s unpaid care work responsibilities pose significant barriers to their economic, social, educational, and leadership opportunities. Women are often challenged with time poverty, particularly when sourcing paid care is not possible.
This not only impacts women’s overall well-being but also reduces the quality of care provided to both caregivers and recipients of care, while also hampering their productivity in both paid and unpaid work. The issue goes beyond individual households to affect whole societies.
According to a recent time use study in Kenya, people aged 15 years and above spend an average of three hours on unpaid work, but women spend approximately five times as much time as men on unpaid domestic and care work. The Kenyan government is in the process of drafting a care policy that will help to recognize, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work in the country.
In this program, we will be learning more about unpaid care work. To better understand the topic, we will hear from Alex Aura, who works for the private sector as a specialist on economic empowerment for women and youth. We shall also hear from two women, one from rural Kenya and the other from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city. They give us their experience as unpaid caregivers. The script is based on these interviews.
If you want to create programs about unpaid care work, talk to a gender specialist, to women engaged in unpaid care work, and to their families. For example, you could ask them the following questions:
- How is unpaid care work managed in your home?
- Is this situation acceptable to you? If not, how could your unpaid care work responsibilities should be reduced or redistributed?
- Why is unpaid care distributed the way it is in your area, society, culture, country?
- Why is it important to talk about unpaid care?
- What is being done by individuals, households, communities, and government to address gender inequalities related to unpaid care?
- What government services, infrastructure, or policies would reduce the intensity and volume of care work for women in your community?
Duration of the program including intro and outro: 20-25 minutes.
Please note that this script is not a word-for-word record of the interviewees’ words. To ensure that we cover the key information about the topic, and that all readers will understand the messages, we have modified the text slightly, and are therefore using pseudonyms rather than the interviewees’ real names.
Script
HOST:
In most Kenyan cultures, children are brought up to believe that men provide basic needs for the family, while women are homemakers and take care of everyone and everything in the home. Because of this, women end up doing most of the domestic work and other unpaid care work in the household. How this does this affect the girls and women in our communities? We will find out in our program today.
To understand this, we hear from two women who have the main responsibility for unpaid care work in the household. We will also learn more about the impacts of unpaid care work on women’s and girls’ economic, social, educational and leadership opportunities. We shall also hear from a women’s economic empowerment specialist who works for the Africa International Center for Research on Women. He will tell us what can be done by individuals, communities, and the government to address gender inequalities linked to unpaid care.
Welcome to the program Focus on the Woman. I am _____.
SFX:
SOUND OF WATER AND DISHES, SOUND OF A RADIO FROM A DISTANCE. UP THEN UNDER.
HOST:
It’s eight o’clock in the morning and I am in a small village in western Kenya. Sharon Shiroya, a 27-year-old mother of two, is busy washing morning dishes at her 79-year-old father’s house. This is just one of the many duties she has to do every day. Today is one of her busiest days because she has to finish her household duties and take her father to the hospital for his monthly check-up, then come back to make sure that her son has something to eat when he comes from school. I first asked her if she has other siblings.
SHARON SHIROYA:
Yes, five, and I am the first born. My mum passed on some years ago and I live with my two children and my dad in the village. My siblings all live and work in the capital city and they help support my dad financially. I have two children but never got married, so am here with dad and the kids. Dad is now old, so he doesn’t do much around the household. This is my life—if I can’t do it, who will?
HOST:
Are you given any money for the work?
SHARON SHIROYA:
(LAUGHING) You mean like pay?
HOST:
Yes, some money to compensate you for the work and time spent doing it.
SHARON SHIROYA:
(Laughing) Not really, but I get to feed my children from the upkeep money they send my dad. I guess they consider that as payment for ensuring dad is taken care of.
HOST:
Do you think you need to be paid for some of the work?
SHARON SHIROYA:
A little appreciation for the work I do in terms of money would be good because I spend all my days in this compound working—and it is a lot of work. Perhaps if I got a little time off too, I would meet someone who may be willing to marry me, (LAUGHING) even with my two children. If someone were employed to do this work, my siblings would have to pay a lot of money.
HOST:
Have you ever told your siblings to pay you?
SHARON SHIROYA:
(LAUGHING) I have hinted, but no one is keen and I kind of understand. My children have a place to stay, and they can eat. I cannot take care of dad’s food and medical bills, but I can help around the house. Maybe this new year they will see things from my perspective. You know how it is in the Kenyan culture—how can you get paid to take care of family?
HOST:
That’s Sharon Shiroya, a young lady taking care of her old and sick dad. Sharon is one of the many women and girls in Kenya who do caregiving tasks without any form of pay. Unpaid care duties prevent women like Sharon from accessing life opportunities such as education and employment, and impact their social engagement and leisure time, therefore affecting their health and poverty levels.
Sharon Shiroya is from rural Kenya. What about women in the urban areas? Is their experience the same? I met with Lisa Adhiambo in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city. She lives in a rich neighbourhood on the outskirts of the city. Lisa is a housewife, but she has not always been a housewife. She resigned from work to take care of her four children. Her husband works in one of the financial institutions in the city.
HOST:
What were you doing before you became a housewife?
:
I was a primary school teacher.
HOST:
Are you happy being a housewife?
:
My husband suggested I resign because I was really struggling with leaving my children to go to work. I agreed when he said he would pay me something small to take care of the children and our home. We also agreed that I would go back to work when the kids are grown.
:
He did pay me, of course less than what I was getting when I was working. But I would end up using the money he gave me to buy basic things that were needed in the house. After a few months, the pay stopped completely, and my husband said we could save the money and do other important things since I am not really “working” as I am already a mother. That was about two or three years after I resigned. I was so angry. But I had not been teaching for some time and in this country, jobs are hard to come by, so I just stayed at home.
HOST:
Before you had children, did you ever talk with your husband about staying at home?
:
My husband is from a very traditional family. His mother and grandmother stayed at home to take care of their families, so I think he liked that kind of arrangement for us. So when the children came in quick succession, I thought maybe it would be a good idea and I agreed to take a break from work.
HOST:
Who do you take care of in your home?
:
I have four children. My first-born is now seventeen and my last is seven. In the house, I live with my husband, and occasionally my mother-in-law lives with us.
HOST;
How is it taking care of everyone?
LISA ADHIAMBO:
It was harder when I had four children under 10 years. Now I have to be up by 4:45 a.m. Prepare breakfast, lunches, and snacks for the kids. Prepare the two youngest and then drop them at school. I am back at nine a.m. and start the housework. Clean and tidy the house, do dishes, laundry, prepare meals, shop for groceries at least twice a week. At four p.m., pick up the kids, help them with their homework and start their bedtime routine. Dinner, showers, and bed by nine p.m. I then prepare for the next day. On a good day, I will be in bed by 11 p.m., but most nights it is 12 or 1 a.m. I hardly get time to enjoy myself unless we are on holiday and even then, I am still on mum duty
HOST:
Seems like a lot of work.
:
It’s a lot. Sometimes I feel like it’s more than my teaching job.
HOST:
How about your mother-in-law?
:
Occasionally my mother-in-law stays with us when she comes to the city for medical treatment.
HOST:
How often is that and how long does she stay?
:
Every two months. She stays for a minimum of two weeks. The longest she stayed with us was seven months.
HOST:
Do you get someone to help you when she is around?
:
My husband does not want strangers to take care of our family, so most of the time I am the one. Once in a while, her daughter will come but not for long, so I am the primary caregiver. You know our culture. The wife has to step in in such cases.
HOST:
What kind of help does your mother-in-law need when she is in the house?
:
She is 83 years, diabetic and partially blind. So, I make sure she has everything she needs. As you can see, my house is big. So, she needs help moving around. Her meals are special, so I have to make separate meals for her and also drive her to doctor’s appointments if my husband is busy. She needs more attention than my seven-year-old son.
HOST:
Do you feel overwhelmed having to do all that work?
:
Oh yes, overwhelmed and undervalued. The worst part is that I miss my teaching job—not so much the pay, but the opportunity to develop my teaching skills, to socialize with colleagues and friends, and to enjoy my career. Sometimes I get depressed because I know one day my children will not need me anymore, so what will I do then? I love my children, but I also feel a part of my life has been wasted.
HOST:
All over the world and in Kenya, care roles mostly fall on women like Lisa. While care work is a social good that sustains and enriches families and communities, unpaid care work can have serious consequences for women’s physical and, like Lisa, even mental health. And it denies women and girls opportunities for self-growth and advancement.
So how can we address unpaid care work so that women and girls are compensated for the time and energy they use to ensure their families and communities are taken care of? I spoke to Alex Aura, who works with the International Center for Research on Women, and began by asking him if unpaid care responsibilities are different for women living in rural versus those in the urban areas.
Alex Aura:
Its worse in the rural areas because it is taken as the woman’s duty. She must ensure that the house is clean, meals are ready, and children are taken care of. Unfortunately, the rural woman is also okay with this because this is how she has been socialized to preserve her family. That’s how rural women gain favour with their spouses and their in-laws. It is a little bit better for women in urban areas, but not for the urban poor. Women in informal urban settlements also have the responsibility of getting water and fuel and taking care of the disabled or elderly in the family. The rich may have resources to take their children to daycare and/or hire help at home.
HOST:
In what ways can we help women with their unpaid care duties?
Alex Aura:
The first thing is that we need to acknowledge that women and girls are subjected to unpaid care in our communities because unpaid care is unseen and therefore undervalued. We need to put a value to unpaid care so that it is quantified because it is a major contributor to Kenya’s GDP. That requires us as individuals and as a community to look at our culture and socialization. We can do this by looking at the five Rs of paid and unpaid care—recognize, reduce, redistribute, reward, and represent.
Unpaid care needs to be recognized for what it is. We need to understand the difference between unpaid care, domestic work, and paid care. At the government level, we need to include unpaid care needs in national policies and budgets.
The next thing is to reduce. At the household level, reduce the burden of unpaid care for women and girls so that they have time to participate in education and in social, political, and economic activities. At the government level, reduce long and tiring hours of unpaid work for women and the related negative health impacts and opportunity costs. We need clear national guidelines on investing in essential services and parental leave schemes for paid and unpaid workers.
Unpaid care work then needs to be redistributed. In a household, this can mean that it is distributed between family members after they have recognized that one person is overburdened. At the community level, it means the responsibility for unpaid care work is shared more equitably between women and men. And at the government level, it means reallocating funding to where it will have the most impact for women with heavy unpaid work responsibilities. In the private sector, this could include campaigns to help reinforce men’s roles in caring for children and families.
This goes further to rewarding. This can be a husband rewarding his wife once he recognizes that the extra work that she is doing is unpaid and needs to be appreciated.
And lastly representation. This means intentionally including unpaid caregivers in decision-making about national, community, and household budgets, planning, policy, and decision-making processes. It means ensuring that unpaid care workers are considered in infrastructure and services at the household, community, and national levels.
HOST:
Very important point about rewarding and putting a value to unpaid work. Lisa Adhiambo, who I spoke to earlier, says she would feel appreciated if she was rewarded.
LISA ADHIAMBO:
Maybe I would be motivated if I was getting some kind of pay from my husband and his family. I know that I am a mum and so we do not expect any payment when taking care of our families, but it can be too much. I need rest, I need to be away from what is now my “working environment.” But I can’t.
HOST:
Culture is one of the reasons there is gender inequality in unpaid care. Women and girls are culturally socialized to assume that unpaid care work is their responsibility. I asked Alex Aura how unpaid care can be addressed from the level of culture.
Alex Aura:
We need tocommunicate with men so they know that they have a duty and responsibility to provide care at home, that it is not a women and girls-only, reduce, and reward care. Some people look at rewarding unpaid care as a foreign concept. That’s why it needs to be addressed at all levels, from the individual, household, and community level all the way to the national level, so we can change the cultural thinking that care roles are women’s roles.
HOST:
Are there examples in Kenya where the government and private sector have made efforts to help women who are engaged in unpaid care work?
Alex Aura:
The Kenyan government is trying. Along with other stakeholders, the Kenyan government is working on a national care policy. This will be used as a legal framework to define unpaid care, paid care, and domestic work within the Kenyan context. It will explain what this kind of work means to the individual and economy and the measures that can be put in place to address unpaid care issues.
HOST:
We are learning about unpaid care work in Kenya and to help us understand more about unpaid care work, we are speaking with Alex Aura, who works with the International Center for Research on Women.
Do you have an example of how the Kenyan government can improve on existing initiatives to help girls and women engaged in care work?
Alex Aura:
Right now, the State Department for Social Protection and Senior Citizen Affairs is giving elderly people and people living with disabilities a two thousand Kenyan shilling cash transfer. That is good for a start, but they also need to think about the caregivers of the elderly and disabled. The two thousand shillings does not include the caregiver, yet the caregiver’s time is tied to the person they care for. The system needs to recognize that money needs to be paid to the one in need
and the one who is providing the care. That way, the caregiver has an income, and this will improve the quality of life of the caregiver.
Of course, there is more to be done by the government, like investing in care infrastructure. For example, there should be more accessible, quality, and affordable childcare facilities in places where women who are not able to get nannies can leave children in a safe environment and where they are provided everything they need. This allows mothers to explore other things that can benefit them.
HOST:
What about the private sector and the larger community?
ALEX AURA:
A good example is Safaricom, one of the leading telecommunication companies in Kenya. Safaricom has a childcare centre at their offices. Mothers can come to work with their children and be assured of their safety as they work. This has been adopted by other companies, including the Kenyan parliament, which is also setting up a place for young mothers. It would definitely be a step in the right direction for the country if more employers would do the same.
HOST:
Very important information from gender specialist Alex on the importance of investing in support services and infrastructure that give women and girls more choice about how to spend their time. Now back to Sharon Shiroya, the unpaid care worker in rural Kenya. I asked her about her son.
I just met your son leaving for school on my way in. Are you teaching him to appreciate that work at home is not just for girls?
Sharon Shiroya:
He helps me around the house when he can, and I also tell him to learn to do the work that he sees girls in the village do. I think because he sees my struggle, he tends to help quite a bit, even at his age. I hope he will grow up to also take responsibility in his own home.
HOST:
I walk away from Sharon with hope and with a big smile, knowing that perhaps a generation of young men like her son are being raised right to recognize, reduce, redistribute, and reward unpaid care work in Kenya.
We were talking about unpaid care work in our program today. Earlier in the program, we heard from two women who are involved in unpaid care work: Sharon Shiroya from rural Kenya and Lisa Adhiambo from Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. We also heard from Alex Aura, a gender specialist who spoke about the impact of unpaid care work on girls and women in Kenya and the support needed from the government, private sector, and the community to support women in unpaid care work.
Join us again next week on Focus on the Woman. I am …
Acknowledgements
Contributed by: Winnie Onyimbo, Trans World Radio, Nairobi, Kenya
Reviewed by: Zahra Sheikh Ahmed, Programme Analyst, Women’s Economic Empowerment, UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi
Information sources
International Labour Organization, 2018. Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_633135.pdf
Oxfam, 2021. Addressing unpaid care and domestic work for a gender-equal and inclusive Kenya. WE-Care policy briefing https://policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/addressing-unpaid-care-and-domestic-work-for-a-gender-equal-and-inclusive-kenya-621179/
UN Women, 2024. The Care Agenda: A Regional Perspective for East and Southern Africa. https://africa.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/esa_care_framing_final_2b_3.pdf
UN Women, undated. Redistributing Unpaid Care and Sustaining Quality Care Services: A Prerequisite for Gender Equality. Policy Brief No. 5. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/Library/Publications/2016/UN-Women-Policy-brief-05-Redistributing-unpaid-care-en.pdf
UN Women HeforShe website. https://www.heforshe.org/en
UN Women. Why women earn less: Gender Pay Gap and Labour-Market Inequalities in East and Southern Africa. https://africa.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/gpg_regional_report_un_women.pdf
Interviews:
Rachael Tsuma, Kakamega County, Kenya, interview conducted on December 22, 2023
Alice Omondi, Nairobi County, Kenya, interview conducted on January 14, 2024.
Chryspin Afifu, gender and women’s economic empowerment specialist at Africa International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), interview conducted on January 16, 2024.
This resource was produced through the ‘UCARE – Unpaid Care in sub-Saharan Africa‘ initiative, which aims to increase gender equality and women’s empowerment through a commitment to more just and equitable sharing of unpaid care and domestic work within the household and the family in sub-Saharan Africa. The project is implemented in partnership with Farm Radio International (FRI), UN Women, and The African Women’s Development and Communications Network (FEMNET) thanks to funding from Global Affairs Canada.
