‘You Have to Rule Your Life’: Latin America’s Care Revolution

Children in Mexico received food baskets during the COVID-19 pandemic (file, 2022)

Globally, there are 12.5 billion hours of work that the world never pays for, because it barely even recognises these duties.

The workers we don’t pay or see are grandmothers, mothers, and daughters—the women who take care of children, look after ill family members, and give dignity to the elderly.

To perform this vital care work, they often give up formal employment with paycheques.

“Our system is designed as if women didn’t do care work, and that forces us to choose between raising children or working,” said Meredith Cortés Bravo, founder of a grassroots organisation in Chile that supports these women.

But in Latin America, this is slowly changing—a care revolution is underway, urging governments and employers to recognise, protect, and fund care work.

“Care is essential for every family and for every community. The revolution is to make it visible, to make it valuable, and to invest,” María Noel Vaeza, UN Women’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean, told UN News.

The High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development is meeting at UN Headquarters in New York to discuss progress—or the lack of it—towards the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While 18 per cent of the goals are on track for 2030, achieving gender equality remains the most off-track. Discriminatory laws and gender-based norms persist worldwide, with women dedicating approximately twice as many hours to unpaid care work as men.

“Gender equality is not a side issue. It is central to peace, justice, sustainable development, and the credibility of the multilateral system itself,” said Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women.

Before the revolution began, Latin America faced a care crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Ms. Vaeza. There was not enough care available outside the home for sick people, forcing society to recognise that taking care of others is work.

“Unpaid care work is what keeps the economy running, but it’s unfair because it’s invisible, undervalued, and underfunded. We must recognise it,” Ms. Vaeza said.

Several Latin American countries are now working to redesign their care economies, ensuring more protections and income for the women and men who provide this work.

“The biggest shift has been putting care at the centre of public policy, not just academic debates,” said Virginia Gontijo, UN Women’s programme lead in Brazil.

This work is already bearing fruit. In Chile, one of the region’s most ambitious care systems is operating in 151 municipalities, aiming to reach 75,000 people in the coming years.

UN Women is collaborating with governments and civil society to ensure that new systems, policies, and laws are shaped by and for caregivers.

A care system in Brazil worked closely with an activist network to train caregivers in labour rights and promote professional development.

“I never felt my work was valued, but after this project, I feel better prepared to take part in political discussions and make our voices heard,” said Lucileide Mafra Reis, a domestic worker activist in Brazil.

Mexico and Peru have taken a rights-based approach, recognising care as a basic human right.

While the international community has yet to make a similar guarantee, Ms. Vaeza said the human rights framework is effective—it restores dignity and recognises that care is a fundamental part of life, from birth to death.

“If you say that care is a human right, it means that the government and the state have to provide support,” said Ms. Vaeza.

It is equally important that employers protect women’s right to do care work, said Aideé Zamorano González, founder of Mama Godin, an organisation in Mexico that evaluates the impact of care policies on women.

This means ensuring workplaces have policies that support mothers as workers, such as schedules that allow them to drop their children off at school.

For her, such policies are crucial for women’s rights and their freedom and autonomy.

“You have to be able to rule your life,” Ms. Zamorano González told UN News.

Beyond autonomy, it is also about safety. If a woman can earn her own money, she can make her own decisions, leave abusive relationships, and avoid economic exploitation.

“Every other type of violence depends on the economic power that you have. If you have the ability to make your own decisions and own money, you are safer,” said Ms. Zamorano González.

Legal changes and government support for care work benefit not only caregivers but also promote economic growth.

“[Care] is an investment—a strategic investment for social justice, gender equality, and sustainable development,” Ms. Vaeza said.

She noted that government investment in paying caregivers will return three-fold through increased purchasing power and tax revenue.

In Chile and Colombia, new care systems are estimated to contribute 25.6 per cent and 19.6 per cent respectively to national GDPs, according to UN Women.

“When you invest in a women’s organisation, you strengthen a living network, a tree with many branches that reaches places no office or institutional programme ever could,” said Ms. Bravo.

Latin America’s progress is a model for other regions, demonstrating the importance of changing legal frameworks for women and girls, Ms. Vaeza said.

“It’s extremely important that this revolution be exported. It’s an investment—a strategic investment for social justice, gender equality, and sustainable development,” she added.

While the revolution continues, Ms. Zamorano González highlighted the importance of economic empowerment for women to protect their rights, even when laws fall short.

“We are under capitalism, so while we change the system, let’s play the game. Let’s get our own means to have freedom,” she said.