Joint project with FEPS: Making Europe #Care4Care!

We have developed the EU Care Atlas in cooperation with FEPS to offer data on the three dimensions of the gender earnings gap on an EU average and in EU member states. The disproportionate burden of unpaid care responsibilities and women’s “double shifts” of paid and unpaid work become most obvious by browsing through the datasets on the gender gaps in time use on paid and unpaid work. 

75% of unpaid and domestic care work in the EU is done by women. The inequal share in care responsibilities directly feeds into gender inequalities and solidifies them in the long term.

The most striking example is the gender earnings gap, currently at 36,7% in the EU. In addition to the gender pay gap, which currently stands at 13% in the EU, it also factors in the working hours gap and the employment gap. All three are directly linked to care, be it because of low pay in the care sector, or mothers being forced to reduce working hours or forego paid work completely.

Browse through the EU Care Atlas and discover how care deficits directly feed into the gender overall earnings gap, perpetuating gender inequalities:

Our latest Policy Study on the European Care Strategy provides a deeper look into how to strengthen the rights of care-receivers and care-givers. The study features several contributions by authors from academia, civil society and policy-making.

• The European Care Strategy – A Chance to Ensure Inclusive Care for All?” by Laeticia Thissen, Agnes Mach et al., March 2023

Our Care4Care project builds on a network of care experts across Europe, who take part in exchanges between stakeholders to develop progressive and transformative policy approaches towards gender equality and care. The Care Framework provides a general introduction of the main challenges addressed in our project and offers a 10-Point Action Plan.

• “Towards a Fairer, Care-Focused Europe”: FEPS-FES Care Framework by Barbara Helfferich, March 2021

Special Policy Brief Series by Jayati Ghosh

A special Policy Brief Series written by Jayati Ghosh in September 2022 provides an extensive insight into care and its intersection with other global challenges. In three contributions, she illustrates the particularities of care work and explains how and why care inequalities need to be addressed by public policy.

Find all Policy Briefs below:

• Briefing 1: Defining Care: Conceptualisations and Particularities
• Briefing 2: The Structure of Care Work and Inequalities among Care Workers
• Briefing 3: Recognising and Rewarding Care Work: The Role of Public Policies

Care4Care Policy Brief Series

The Care4Care Policy Brief Series provides a closer look at various issues concerning care work, such as the working conditions of intra-EU migrant caregivers or the gendered dimension of part-time work. New articles are being published on a continuous basis.

Find all Policy Briefs below:

• "Vital yet Vulnerable: Europe's Intra-EU Migrant Caregivers" by Petra Ezzeddine, September 2021
•  "Part-Time Work: Risk or Opportunity?” by Janna Besamusca and Mara A. Yerkes, October 2021