Dare to care: Five ways investing in care transforms economies

Care is a fundamental human need that sustains societies. It includes childcare, eldercare, support for people with disabilities, and everyday tasks that uphold well-being. Yet care work remains undervalued and largely invisible in economic systems with women carrying a disproportionate share. This limits their access to education, decent work, and leadership, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality.

Addressing this imbalance requires rethinking how care is valued. To this end, the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia convened 40 policymakers, gender experts, and economists from the Western Balkans for a regional training focused on practical solutions to transform care systems. Held under the TransformCare initiative and funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the training featured various experts, including Professor İpek İlkkaracan, who emphasized that meaningful change begins when societies recognize and invest in care. Here are a few takeaways on what changes when societies dare to care.

1. Care investments reduce women’s time poverty

For women in their prime working and childbearing years - whether in Türkiye or elsewhere - seeking to escape income poverty through paid work often comes at a cost: it pushes them into time poverty. In Europe and Central Asia, women spend an average of five hours daily on unpaid work, compared to just two hours for men. Because unpaid care and domestic work continue to fall disproportionately on women, those in full-time employment effectively take on a “second shift,” working longer overall hours than men while having little to no discretionary time. Accessible childcare services, supportive labour policies, and flexible work arrangements - combined with more equal sharing of care responsibilities - help free up women’s time for education, rest, and social participation.    

2. Care systems strengthen women’s economic empowerment

Policies that focus solely on bringing women into the labour market fall short if care work remains unequally distributed. Without a more equal sharing of care, women’s employment remains fragile, often pushing them into informal work or out of the labour force. A more sustainable approach is a “dual earner–dual carer” model, where both paid work and unpaid care responsibilities are shared across genders. Paid parental leave for both caregivers, shorter working hours, incentives for equal sharing of care help women stay in the workforce and boost income security. In Europe and Central Asia, where women make up over three-quarters of the care workforce, expanding care services also has a dual impact: it creates jobs in female-dominated sectors while freeing up women’s time to pursue paid work.

3. The care sector creates inclusive, decent, and future-proof jobs

The care economy is a powerful engine for job creation. Even shifting a fraction of unpaid care into the formal economy could generate employment at scale. “Because it is labour-intensive, every dollar invested in care creates more jobs than sectors like construction—what we call a high employment multiplier,” Ilkkaracan explains. Care is also a human-centred sector that is harder to automate than most, making it a more resilient source of work for the future. Studies show that investment in care can generate nearly three times as many jobs as equivalent spending in construction, while producing 30 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions. With the right policies and sustained public investment, the care economy can underpin growth that is genuinely more inclusive and sustainable. 

4. Care systems improve well-being and human development 

“When people have access to better care, they live healthier lives,” says İlkkaracan, who emphasizes the importance of combining quality services with wider family support. Across Europe and Central Asia, limited public care services - especially in rural areas - leaves families to cope on their own. Meanwhile, the people doing that care work are frequently overlooked: globally, around 80 per cent of domestic workers are women, and 90 per cent lack access to social security, with many working unlimited working hours. Investing in care systems means investing in them too – through decent working conditions, fair pay, and clear professional standards.  

5. Investing in care builds more resilient and cohesive societies 

When care is recognized as both a public good and a strategic investment, it stops being seen as an individual concern and becomes a shared societal responsibility – one that pays off over time through healthier populations, stronger human capital, higher labour force participation, and more jobs.

UN Women's global, multi-partner TransformCare initiative aims to reshape care systems by expanding access to quality services, creating decent jobs, redistributing responsibilities, recognizing and valuing care work, and shifting social norms that have long kept care work invisible. 

In Europe and Central Asia, the initiative advocates for inclusive and equitable care systems with the potential to benefit 100 million women and girls, by building stronger evidence base for decision-making and supporting partners in the region through capacity-building activities.