International Women's Day: Caregiving is a human act/need, not 'women's work.'
#Accelerate action to meet our increasing care needs.: remove bias and gender stereotypes, push for reforms, campaign against funding cuts, and build community.
On International Women’s Day (IWD), let’s celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about discrimination, and take action to forge gender parity. International Women's Day (IWD) has been around for over a hundred years, but today, more than ever, many issues impact women's rights and advancement. IWD belongs to all who care about women's equality. #IWD2025 #AccelerateAction.
I challenge gender stereotypes, discrimination and bias.
“We've arranged our work world as if we're not humans who love people who need us to step in. And that's got to change,” Emily Kenway, author of Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving.
An Introduction to Some Facts That Burn
Gender inequality in caregiving for the elderly, sick and disabled is well-documented1. For example, Research by the Centre for Care on the likelihood of providing care in the UK found that women have a higher chance of becoming a carer than men (70% vs 60%). By the time they are aged 46, half of women have been a carer. Men have the same 50:50 chance by age 57 – eleven years later.
Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation2 based on Understanding Society data found that if the number of carers rises only in line with population growth, by 2035 there will be an extra 400,000 people in the UK caring for the elderly, sick and disabled for 10 or more hours per week, an 11.3% increase compared to today. If we include those caring for fewer than 10 hours per week, this figure rises to 990,000 additional carers, a 10.6% increase compared to today.
And yet, the increasing need for social care has outpaced economic policies and infrastructure changes. The UK government announced January 3, 2025, an independent commission for reforming adult social care, chaired by Louise Casey. Split into two phases, this cross-party commission will report firstly in mid-2026 and then will set out a longer-term plan ‘by 2028’. You can read the response of the County Councils Network here, and Melanie Williams, President of ADASS (Directors of Adult Social Services (UK)) here. Here’s an excerpt:
“Unfortunately, the timescales announced are too long and mean there won’t be tangible changes until 2028. We already know much of the evidence and options on how to reform adult social care, including our independently commissioned Time to Act report, and worry that continuing to tread water until an independent commission concludes will be at the detriment of people’s health and wellbeing. (Melanie Williams)
There is a mountain of evidence and research about the impact of caregiving on the financial, health, and well-being of unpaid carers.3 With delayed social care reforms, guess who’ll be undertaking more caregiving? Not just you and me, but the next generation.
While women continue to strive for pay parity and recognition of achievements, we are more likely to be carers at an earlier age compared to men, poorer4 and potentially suffering from ill health ourselves.
This is a global phenomenon…and before anyone thinks it… it is the same across all cultures. Contrary to the assumed cultural bias that it’s ‘easier’ for some cultures, —it may be normalised in some cultures, but the impact and struggles remain the same!
What can we do to accelerate action, support younger people who may be on the cusp of caregiving, and reduce the gendered bias around care? I have a few thoughts. What are yours?
In solidarity with International Women’s Day, I’m sharing some insights into caregiving. What can we do today to shift the narrative away from individual gender-biased responsibility and push forward towards Caregiving being a shared, collective and intergenerational array of actions with our neighbours and within communities?
Table of Contents
International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025 campaign theme is 'Accelerate Action'
Click here to go to the organiser’s website
As Gloria Steinem once explained: "The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights."
International Women's Day (IWD) has been around for over a hundred years, and many issues still impact women's advancement. Since 1911, IWD belongs to all who care about women's equality.
Celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness about discrimination, or take action to forge gender parity. All IWD activity is valid. (#IWD2025 #AccelerateAction for gender equality.)
At the current rate of progress, full gender parity will not be achieved until 2158, roughly five generations from now, according to the World Economic Forum.
#Accelerate Action emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases women face, both personally and professionally.
One of the best ways to forge gender equality is to understand what works and to do more of this faster. Accelerate Action is a worldwide call to acknowledge strategies, resources, and activities that positively impact women's advancement and to support and elevate their implementation.
Significant barriers to gender equality remain, yet positive progress can be made for women everywhere with the right action and support.
Snapshots of caregiving today:
A) PBS Hour “As America’s population ages, women shoulder the burden as primary caregivers” (Video + Emily Kenway interview)
Currently, 1 in 6 Americans is older than 65, a number that’s projected to rise to 1 in 4 by 2050. As older Americans’ needs for medical care and other support grow, women bear the biggest part of the burden of caring for them. Ali Rogin speaks with some women about their experiences, and author Emily Kenway talks about the often unseen costs of caregiving. (March 31, 2024)
ALI ROGIN: Joining me now is Emily Kenway, author of "Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving and How We Solve it"5 and a former caregiver herself. Emily, thank you so much for joining us. Can we start with your own caregiving journey?What did you go through and when did you realize that this is indeed a crisis?
EMILY KENWAY, Author, "Who Cares": Yes. So I cared for my mother. She was a single mom, which meant I needed to step in as her daughter when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2016. And obviously that was incredibly difficult personally. But it also woke me up politically to what's going on with caregiving around the world today. And we know that this is just going to get worse over time as well, right? So we have aging populations around the world. You know, one demographer has called it the greying of America. And so we can all expect a greater and greater load of caring responsibilities and to be in the crisis that I was in unless we introduce major changes.
ALI ROGIN (AR): And when you talk about who's taking on those responsibilities, it is disproportionately women. Why have you found that to be so?
EMILY: We have this historical heritage whereby around industrialisation, we created this cultural norm, right, that the man goes to work and does waged work and the woman stays at home and does unpaid care. And we haven't caught up with today's reality at all, because, of course, today more women are working. Many households need the women to work. You know, those wages are not things that can just be tossed aside.
And so this idea that we can carry on ascribing to one gender all of the weight of care for our entire species is really outdated.
AR: And given all those realities you just laid out, what are some of the challenges that women tend to face when they become caregivers?
EMILY : Of course, there's a financial impact.
Most of the time, if you're a caregiver, you'll need to reduce your working days and you may give up your work entirely.
In fact, we know in the U.S., on average, women caregivers lose about $320,000 in lost income and lost social security benefits.
And that doesn't just harm us right now. That means we're going to have a real problem in retirement, right? Our security in old age is harmed just because we stepped in and did the right thing.
There's also a massive psychological toll. You may be having to constantly monitor and watch your loved one's condition.
You're experiencing what we call role reversal. So you suddenly become the mother of your mother, right? And you're dealing with that strange dissonance.
And then, of course, you're moving through a world that doesn't recognize or support this. So your employer may well not accommodate your caring responsibilities.
And it bears out in the statistics, too. We know that caregivers have higher rates of depression and anxiety for these reasons.
AR: Given the fact that so few resources exist, I would imagine that also comes with a lot of assumptions and misperceptions. What are some of the most pervasive that you've come across when it comes to caregiving?
EMILY: I think one of the most pervasive assumptions is that caregiving is kind of something that doesn't have any costs when it's performed by the family, right? So, yeah, it's free. We're not being paid, but there are enormous costs.
When you're very elderly or very unwell, you need to be kept warmer. There's higher energy costs. There's mobility aids. There's special diets. There's all of this kind of thing. So there's a material, practical reality there.
The other misperception I encounter a lot is this idea that some cultures can manage this more naturally than white Western cultures, right? So that would typically be countries in the Global South. And it is very much more normalized that they would perform care, for example, for their parents-in-law, not just their parents. But when you actually listen to them, they are struggling in exactly the same ways as I was, the same ways as women everywhere are, because care is hard.
So we have to be very careful of making assumptions based on people's culture, ethnicity, nationality, and so on, and instead see that women around the world, we're all in the same fight here together.
AR: And Emily, here in the U.S., one in five adults right now are working as caregivers. How can we better prepare to care for these aging populations in the years to come?
EMILY: What we need to do here is really recognize that humans are going to have to provide care. And so we need to embed policies that recognize that. That's things like paid caregiver’s leave, from work?
So at the moment, the Family and Medical Leave Act only provides unpaid leave. And in fact, the Department of Labor found that 41% of private sector employees aren't even covered by it.
So there are these fundamental economic policies that we shouldn't even be having to ask for, frankly, because it's so obvious that they're necessary.
But basically, we've arranged our work world as if we're not actually humans who love people who need us to step in. And that's got to change.
AR: Emily Kenway, author of "Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving and How We Solve it," thank you so much for joining us.
EMILY: Thank you.
B) Caring Across Generation: Protect Medicaid Campaign
The Trump administration is pushing dangerous cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), putting millions at risk. These cuts would devastate families, caregivers, and care workers, all while funding tax breaks for the wealthy. But together, we can stop these dangerous cuts and protect Medicaid.
What's at Stake
Medicaid is more than just a healthcare program—it’s a lifeline for nearly 80 million people, including 17 million disabled people and older adults. It provides essential coverage for doctor visits, medications, and long-term care that private insurance often doesn’t cover. It ensures children get the care they need without families facing financial hardship.
Now, that lifeline is under threat. The proposed Medicaid cuts aren’t about saving money—they’re about shifting resources away from families and caregivers to fund tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.
If cuts are made:
Millions of family caregivers would lose critical support, making it even harder to balance work, family, and caregiving responsibilities.
7.8 million disabled people and aging adults could lose access to home and community-based services (HCBS), taking away their right to receive the care they need on their terms. This is also something that, in most instances, Medicare will NOT cover.
Rural hospitals could be forced to close, which provide access to lifesaving care and create good-paying jobs within the healthcare system.
The direct care workforce shortage would worsen, as millions of home care workers – who are paid through Medicaid – could see job losses or reduced wages.
As federal budgets are slashed, state governments can’t fill in the gaps. Unlike Medicare, which is a completely federally-run program, Medicaid is jointly funded by federal and state governments. Cuts at the federal level would put pressure on states, none of which have the funding to fill the gaps.
It is not possible to reduce funding to Medicaid without hurting disabled people and older adults. We must fight to protect and expand Medicaid, not take it away.
Read more actions you can take to support the campaign here
C) “Older women, caregiving, and the silent crisis of gender inequality” (a quote and link). Published 23 February 2025
HelpAge International is launching a campaign to honour the 30th anniversary of the historic 1995 Beijing Conference6 by spotlighting remarkable women who attended and helped shape the global gender equality agenda.
As the world gathers for CSW69, this initiative will highlight their experiences, reflections, and ongoing advocacy, demonstrating both the progress made and the urgent work still needed to achieve true equality for women and girls.
In this interview, Isabel María Martínez Lozano7 reflects on the power of global solidarity, the progress made in gender equality, and the alarming pushback against women’s rights today. She discusses the persistent challenges facing older women, the need for intergenerational activism, and why feminist movements must stay united in the fight ahead.
In short, women live longer but suffer from poorer health, have more chronic illnesses, and face greater financial hardship. Gender-based violence remains a significant issue for many older women, who often lack the means to escape long-standing cycles of abuse. However, an encouraging aspect is their resilience and their ability to forge support networks within their communities.
What can we do today and tomorrow to accelerate action?
A small actionable idea - let’s talk more: Older women to younger women. Caregivers to potential caregivers. Parents/relatives with family members. Intergenerations, cross-culturally and regardless of gender. Over a cup of tea with our friends, in our communities and at work. Here in virtual communities.
This isn’t only about women bearing the caregiving responsibilities, it’s also about how we ALL plan for our future.
We can start to seed in thoughts into family discussions, engage with empathy and open questions to actively listen and understand peoples wishes and discuss health needs.
To restate the Carers UK fact: By the time they are aged 46, half of women have been a carer. Men have the same 50:50 chance by age 57 – eleven years later.
I resigned from my full time employment aged 45, but had 2 years of caring on and off to have my eyes fully opened to what my choice would entail. Many caregivers don’t see any choice or ‘sleepwalk’ into caregiving, unprepared and unsure of their loved one’s wishes.
Talking may seem small but small seeds can grow, we can
raise awareness around the realities of caregiving, remove taboos about health and care discussions.
identify loved one’s wishes and needs today, and potential near-term scenarios
have intergenerational discussions with friends and younger family members (not just sons and daughters) and identify those willing to offer support
take personal accountability and agency for our own wishes and needs by voicing our thoughts with loved ones
begin to document instructions and wishes and identify (not assume) the person who can execute them, and the ones who can’t
Of course, systems and policies need to change but given politics and current affairs of today, we can’t assume local care support will be readily available. You can get involved with Caring Across Generations in the US, or Carers UK.
Can we start shifting the narrative from behind closed doors to open community discussions and accelerate change?
What’s one small chat/discussion you can do to accelerate action around care/caregiving for your loved ones/yourself/friends?
What can you do support a caregiver/caregiving in your community?
What are your thoughts? Could you support a caregiver in your community, or share your experience of caregiving with younger people who maybe on the cusp of caregiving? How can we reduce the gender bias around care?
Your support is greatly appreciated for the mission of this publication.
Please remember to ‘❤️’ LIKE the article to guide others to these resources
The future of care needs: a whole systems approach (22 August 2024)
The Carer’s Leave Act entitles someone caring for someone with a long term illness 5 days of unpaid leave per year. Don’t ask me about all the rules around it!
Fourth World Conference on Women, 4-15 September 1995, Beijing, China The landmark conference on women. The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China was the most important of the four conferences on women held between 1975-1995, because it built on political agreements that had been reached at the three previous global conferences on women, and it consolidated five decades of legal advances aimed at securing the equality of women with men in law and in practice. The conference marked a significant turning point for the global agenda for gender equality. The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, adopted unanimously by 189 countries, was an agenda for women’s empowerment that is now considered the key global policy document on gender equality. It set strategic objectives and actions for the advancement of women and the achievement of gender equality in 12 critical areas of concern. (Read more)
Isabel María Martínez Lozano is currently the Chair of HelpAge Spain. She holds a PhD in Social Sciences from the Universidad de Valencia and a degree in Information Sciences from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
She has held several positions with the Spanish government – Secretary-General for Social Policy and Consumer Affairs as well as Secretary-General for Equality. She is currently the Commissioner of Fundación ONCE for Universities, Youth, and Special Programmes.
Such a fitting and important post for international women’s day. I was thinking about you today as I was reading about Gene Hackman and his wife (who was also his caregiver).
It’s a terribly tragic story that I hope will shine light on the plight of caregivers as well as the need to ensure they have adequate respite and support.
Thanks for highlighting this important issue Victoria 🙏