Caregiving is a critical part of supporting health and development across the life course. Family members’ time, support, and love is needed from the caregiving of infancy, through childhood colds and illnesses, to serious accidents and illnesses that happen at any age, and to provide day to day care when older family members can no longer live independently or at end of life. While we all need care at multiple points in our lives, care responsibilities are not shared equally. The International Labour Organisation estimates that in 2019 there were 606 million women out of the labor force to meet care needs compared to only 41 million men. Laws and policies have an important role to play in helping to support individuals in their dual roles as workers and caregivers. Paid leave policies enable workers to maintain job and income security while taking the time they need to care for loved ones. Prohibitions of discrimination support more equal opportunities in the labor force for workers with care responsibilities. Laws can also help combat outdated norms that make women primarily responsible for care by supporting fathers’ early engagement in care responsibilities during infancy and removing barriers for workers of all genders to being able to experience the joys and challenges of providing care for loved ones at any age.
In this section we have analyzed legislation for all 193 UN member states to create globally comparative, quantitatively analyzable data that shape people’s ability to meet caregiving needs across the life course.
