UWLP Blog - Unpaid Care Work

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The COVID-19 pandemic has affected workers across the globe, and women in the workforce have been disproportionately impacted. In this brief, we focus on qualitative findings regarding care work experiences—including caring for people other than one’s own children—during the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2021 has impacted every Utahn in significant ways. Yet, research has found that women have been even more negatively impacted than men. For example, nearly 3 million American women have left the labor force over the past year and not returned.

The COVID-19 pandemic that reached Utah in March of 2020 has had an enormous impact on the way companies do business. Many companies adjusted work practices and policies in other ways to support their employees during a challenging time.

Many factors contribute to the gender disparity in the amount of time men and women spend doing unpaid care work. Countries where traditional gender norms are still deeply entrenched, including many developing nations, have some of the highest differences in the amount of unpaid care work performed by women and men.

In October of 2017, the Utah Women and Leadership Project along with the YWCA of Utah brought a group of experts together to identify current resources/strengths, challenges, and potential interventions that would help Utah caregivers. What follows are their recommendations organized by category.

Did you know that 72% of Utah’s adult women work? In Utah, women make up 44% of the total workforce. Utah Women and Education researchers have conducted in-depth research to shed light on why more young women around the state are not attending and graduating from college.