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Women and girls spend 2.5 times more hours on unpaid care work than men.
Around 708 million working-age women are outside the labour market because of unpaid care responsibilities.
UN Women says investment in care services could create nearly 300 million decent jobs by 2035.
The agency is urging governments and businesses to treat care systems as essential economic and social infrastructure.
Investing in care systems could create millions of jobs, strengthen economies and reduce the unequal burden of unpaid work on women and girls, UN Women has said.
The United Nations agency said care work, both paid and unpaid, was the “invisible foundation” of economies and societies, but remained undervalued and unequally shared.
It said an estimated 350 million children globally need childcare services, while 2.3 billion people are expected to require care by 2030, up from 2.1 billion in 2015. As populations age and demand for care rises, UN Women said investment in care systems was becoming an economic imperative.
The agency said unpaid care work, if given a monetary value, would account for up to 40 per cent of GDP in some countries. It added that investment in care sectors could create two to three times more jobs than investment in construction.
UN Women said closing care gaps was essential for gender equality. Women and girls spend 2.5 times more hours a day on unpaid care work than men. Globally, 708 million working-age women, or 45 per cent, are outside the labour market because of unpaid care responsibilities, compared with 5 per cent of men.
Paid care work is also largely carried out by women, often in low-paid and insecure conditions. Women make up two-thirds of workers in care sectors, including healthcare, childcare and domestic work. They also account for 80 per cent of paid domestic workers globally, while 90 per cent of domestic workers lack social protection and social security coverage.
The agency warned that conflicts and climate-related disasters were further straining care systems, with women and girls absorbing much of the additional workload. In crisis settings, women spend nearly four times more hours on unpaid care work than men.
UN Women said investment in care services could create nearly 300 million new decent jobs by 2035 and could be 30 per cent less polluting than investment in construction.
Its Transform Care Initiative aims to strengthen care systems in more than 50 countries. By 2035, the initiative could reach 2.9 billion women and girls, create 260 million decent jobs for women and free up 10 trillion hours of women’s and girls’ time.
UN Women urged governments and private sector partners to invest in equitable care systems, calling it one of the most urgent choices for advancing gender equality, economic prosperity and resilience.
