The workers who do not pay or see are grandmothers, mothers, daughters, the women who care for children, take care of family members and give dignity to the elderly.
To do this life care work, they renounce formal job with payment checks.
“Our system is designed as if women did not do care work, and that forces us to choose between raising children or working,” said Meredith Cortés Bravo, founder of a base organization in Chile that supports these women.
But, in Latin America, this is changing slowly: a revolution of attention is underway that is asking governments and employers who consider what it would mean to recognize, protect and finance care work.
“The attention is essential for each family and for each community. The revolution is to make it visible, to make it valuable and invest,” said MarÃa Noel Vaza, UN regional director for women in Latin America and the Caribbean. UN news.
The most out of home objective
The High Level Political Forum (HLPF) on sustainable development is becoming the UN Headquarters in New York to discuss progress, or their lack, towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agreed worldwide.
While 18 percent of the objectives are on the way to 2030, achieving gender equality remains the furthest. Discriminatory laws and gender norms persist worldwide, with women who dedicate approximately twice as many hours to unpaid care work than men.
“Gender equality is not a secondary problem. It is essential for peace, it is essential for justice and is essential for sustainable development and credibility of the multilateral system itself,” said Sima Bahous, executive director of the UN Women, in a forum session this week.
The revolution is underway
Before the revolution began, Latin America faced a care crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Mrs. Vaza. There was not enough attention available outside the house for sick people, which forced society to recognize that taking care of others is work.
“The unpaid care work is what keeps the economy in operation, but it is unfair because it is invisible, undervalued and sub -financed. We must recognize it,” Vaza said.
In Latin America, several countries are actively working to redesign their care economies, ensuring more protections and income for women and men who provide this work.
“The greatest change has been attention at the Public Policy Center, not just academic debates,” said Virginia Gontijo, leader of the UN Women’s Program in Brazil.
This work is already fruit.
In Chile, one of the most ambitious care systems in the region is already delivering in 151 municipalities, with the ultimate goal of reaching 75,000 people in the coming years.
The UN women is working with governments and civil society groups to ensure that these new systems, policies and laws are formed by and for caregivers.
A care system in Brazil worked in close collaboration with an activist network to train caregivers in labor rights and promote long -term professional development.
“I never felt that my work was valued, but after this project, I feel better prepared to participate in political discussions and make our voices heard,” Lucileide Mafra Reis, an activist of domestic workers in Brazil, said.
UNICEF is helping to promote healthy eating and well -being of children and adolescents in Mexico.
Care is a human right
Mexico and Peru have adopted a more approach based on rights for attention, encoding it as a basic human right.
While the international community does not yet have a similar guarantee, Mrs. Vaza said that the human rights framework is exceptionally effective: it restores dignity and recognizes that care is a fundamental part of human life trajectories, from birth to death.
“If he says that care is a human right, it means that the Government and the State have to provide support,” said Mrs. Vaza.
It is equally important for employers to protect the right of women to do care, said the Aidea Zamorano González, a mother founded by Mama Godin, an organization in Mexico that evaluates the impact of care policies on women.
This means ensuring that workplaces have policies that support mothers as workers, such as schedules that allow them to leave their children in school.
For her, these types of policies are crucial for women’s rights and particularly for their freedom and autonomy.
“You have to be able to govern your life,” said Zamorano González UN news.
However, beyond autonomy, it is also about security. If a woman can earn her own money, and therefore, her own decisions, she can leave abusive relationships and avoid economic exploitation.
“Every other type of violence depends on the economic power you have. If you have the ability to make your own decisions and your own money, you are safer,” said Mrs. Zamorano González.
An economic investment
Changes in legal classifications and government support for care work not only benefit caregivers, but also promote economic growth among societies.
“(Care) is an investment, a strategic investment for social justice, for gender equality and for sustainable development,” said Vaza.
He pointed out that dedicating government funds to pay the caregivers will return the investment three times, both by increasing their purchasing power and generating tax revenues.
In Chile and Colombia, it is estimated that new care systems contribute to 25.6 percent and 19.6 percent respectively to their national GDPs, according to UN women.
“When you invest in a women’s organization, it strengthens a living network, a tree with many branches that reaches the places that no institutional position could,” Bravo said.
Export the revolution
The progress of Latin America in attention is a model for other regions around the world and demonstrates the importance of changing legal frameworks for women and girls, according to Mrs. Vaza.
“It is extremely important that this revolution exports. It is an investment, a strategic investment for social justice, for gender equality and for sustainable development,” he said.
While the revolution is ongoing, Mrs. Zamorano González stressed the importance of economic empowerment for women as a means to protect their own rights even when laws and policies fall short.
“We are under capitalism, so while we change the system, we play the game. We obtain our own means to be freedom,” he said.