African countries, in their quest for women’s economic justice, should treat care work as an essential part of the economy, not simply as a household responsibility. Across the continent, women feed families, build businesses, care for communities, drive innovation, and sustain economies. Yet they continue to carry a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work, limiting their economic opportunities, professional growth, and participation and contribution in leadership and decision-making.
The Unbalanced Scale of Unpaid Care and its Economic Consequences
In many African communities, women remain the primary caregivers. They spend countless hours caring for children, fetching water, preparing meals, and supporting households. While this labor is essential to the functioning of society, it often goes unrecognized, unpaid and undervalued. The result is persistent inequality for women, as the have less time for education, paid employment, entrepreneurship, and leadership. We cannot achieve women’s economic justice without tackling the unequal care systems that constrain their participation in economic and public life.
Research by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) Improving Childcare Provision in Informal Settlements in Nairobi City County, highlights the challenges many working mothers face in accessing affordable, quality childcare. The findings indicate that childcare quality varies but is generally low, with parents expressing concerns about children’s safety, health, and nutrition. This situation often forces women out of the workforce or prevents them from returning after childbirth.
For some families, the available alternatives may not adequately provide children with the nurturing care, stimulation, and early learning opportunities they need, especially in their critical developmental years. The consequences extend beyond individual households, affecting women’s livelihoods, children’s development, and broader economic productivity.
The economic case for recognizing care work
Research shows that the gap in unpaid care work is wide. According to the Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026, data covering 13 African countries between 2005 and 2021 women spend between 210 and 322 minutes per day on unpaid care, compared with between 35 and 108 minutes for men. These figures show the persistent gender imbalance in the distribution of care and domestic responsibilities. The numbers also reveal a fundamental economic contradiction. They show the extent of African economies’ dependence on women’s labour while too often failing to recognise or adequately support the care responsibilities that limit women’s economic participation. Care must therefore be understood as economic infrastructure, not simply a private household responsibility. Investment in women’s economic justice is investment in human development.
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Investing in care yields benefits across generations. When women have access to quality childcare, decent work, economic opportunities, and decision-making power, they are better positioned to sustain their livelihoods and exercise greater control over their economic choices.
As a result, children are more likely to receive nurturing care, adequate nutrition, stimulation, and early learning. They are better prepared for school, more likely to acquire relevant current and future skills, and better positioned to contribute to their communities and economies as adults and life-long learners. Care policies are therefore not only instruments of gender equality, but they are also investments in human development and inclusive economic growth.
Who must act to build systems of care
Realizing these benefits requires deliberate action from various stakeholders. For example, governments must prioritize affordable, accessible, quality childcare within early childhood development, social protection, and economic development policies. Employers must adopt family-friendly workplace practices that help workers balance work and caregiving responsibilities. National statistical systems and policymakers should strengthen the measurement and recognition of unpaid care work so it appears in evidence, planning, and budgeting. Equally important, households and communities must challenge social norms that treat caregiving as primarily women’s responsibility and promote a more equitable distribution of care between women and men.
Africa’s future means women’s economic empowerment
Women’s economic empowerment cannot rest on access to jobs, credit, or enterprise support alone. This reality pricks our conscience and compels us to rethink what women’s empowerment truly requires. The path to women’s empowerment does not begin with a job application or a business loan. It begins with the conditions that enable women to pursue these opportunities, including good physical and mental health, healthy pregnancies, quality childcare, nurturing care, early learning opportunities, equitable access to education and skills development, and supportive workplaces. Economic empowerment initiatives cannot fully succeed if women are expected to participate equally in the economy while continuing to shoulder a disproportionate share of the unpaid care work that sustains it.
Also Read: Why Investing in Women Means Protecting Their Reproductive Health
As African countries pursue inclusive growth and gender equality, the question is no longer whether care work matters. It is whether our policies, budgets, workplaces, and social institutions adequately recognize and support it. Investing in care is investing in women’s economic justice, children’s development, and Africa’s future. Therefore, governments, employers, communities, and households must share responsibility for building care systems that enable women to thrive, children to flourish, and societies to prosper.
About the Authors
This article was jointly authored by Wendyjoy Gitari and Lucy A. Wakiaga.
Wendy is a Research Officer within the Education and Youth Empowerment Unit at the African Population and Health Research Centre.
Lucy A. Wakiaga is an Associate Research Scientist within the Education and Youth Empowerment Unit at the African Population and Health Research Center.
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