By IMCO Staff

Based on the 2022 National Survey for the Care System (ENASIC) conducted by INEGI, the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) analyzed the economic participation and working conditions of women who perform caregiving activities. Caregiving is one of the main barriers preventing more women from continuing their professional careers, as it reduces their participation in the labor market and, consequently, their economic autonomy.

In Mexico, 31.6 million people aged 15 and older provide unpaid care, representing 321 million people per year of the total population. However, three out of four caregivers are women, specifically mothers, who tend to put their professional careers on hold for this reason.

Women who perform care work and who also participate in the paid economy may be forced to reduce their working hours or even leave their jobs. Nine out of 10 people who leave the labor market to provide care are women.

What is the economic participation of women who provide care?

Women who perform caregiving tasks tend to participate in the labor market at a lower rate (51%), compared to those who do not dedicate time to this responsibility (71%). On the other hand, the proportion of men who have a job or are looking for one is higher—regardless of their role as caregivers—and the gap in economic participation between those who perform caregiving tasks and those who do not is significantly lower than in the case of women, at four and 20 percentage points, respectively.

On average, women spend 1.5 times more time on caregiving tasks than men: they spend 37.9 hours per week on these responsibilities, while men spend 25.6 hours. Therefore, women tend to seek more flexible jobs in order to balance their professional lives with caregiving. The most prevalent employment benefits among female caregivers are the ability to take time off to run errands (73%) or care for someone else (67%), while the ability to bring their children to work falls to 40%.

In the absence of flexible jobs, women who provide care reduce their time in the labor market, which can impact the quality of their employment and their income. Nearly half of them (48%) spend less than 35 hours per week on paid work. Consequently, women reduce their spending or borrow money four times more than men due to their caregiving role. In other words, unpaid care reduces women's economic autonomy.

Among the main reasons why caregivers who have more time to invest in paid employment do not do so are housework (42%), followed by the fact that they value family or personal time (30%), or other reasons such as lack of approval from a family member, health problems, or public safety (16%). For men in this situation, the main reason is that their income is insufficient (30%), while for women this proportion drops to 12%.

This situation can also have repercussions on their physical and emotional state; more than half of women who do both jobs report feeling tired or having decreased sleep due to their caregiving role, compared to two in 10 men. 

What's missing to bring more women into the workforce?

The burden of unpaid care needs to be balanced between men and women so that more women join the economy and men can play a more active role in the home. The question is how to redistribute care, since cultural beliefs and perceptions surrounding care cannot be ignored when designing care policies.

Although seven out of 10 women who want to work do so because they lack care for their children, elderly people, or the sick, almost the entire population (94%) believes that caring for household members is the responsibility of the families themselves. Furthermore, 54% of the population who do not agree with sending children to daycare or childcare do so because they believe the mother, father, or other family members should do so.

This information needs to be taken into account when designing public and business policies, since without a diagnosis that addresses the supply and demand for care in the country, the solution is unclear.

A National Care System

Latin American economies are moving toward the creation of a National Care System (NCS). Uruguay was the first country in the region to implement one in 2015, and countries like Chile, Colombia, and Argentina are continuing their efforts. A NCS does not only involve expanding care infrastructure, but is a set of policies that seek a new social organization of care.

Mexico is seeking a system of coordination between public institutions to address the country's healthcare needs. The Ministry of Finance and Public Credit estimates that an annual public investment equivalent to approximately 1.41 trillion pesos of the national Gross Domestic Product would be required, which could be financed through a tripartite system between the state, businesses, and the workforce.

To achieve this, a constitutional reform is necessary to recognize that every person has the right to dignified care, as well as the right to care. The Chamber of Deputies approved this initiative in 2020, but it still needs approval from the Senate and the majority of local congresses. Following this, it will be necessary to issue the corresponding legislation to establish the government's responsibilities in this matter for each institution and level of government, as well as to grant the authority to design the national care policy that currently does not exist.

Caregiving is a driving force for the country's functioning, enabling others to carry out their daily activities, such as studying or working. To promote evidence-based decision-making regarding care, there is a lack of information on the supply of care services, understanding families' preferences for using these services, and generating disaggregated data at the state and even municipal levels. This information is necessary to answer questions such as how much infrastructure and installed capacity exists to provide care and whether it is sufficient to meet demand.

Redistributing caregiving would reduce a barrier for women seeking to enter and remain in the Mexican labor market. To achieve this, IMCO proposes shifting from a caregiving system that currently falls primarily on families to one that is a shared responsibility between the state, businesses, and households. This entails implementing policies such as mandatory and extended paternity leave, as well as encouraging more inclusive work environments that are compatible with caregiving for both men and women.