Not ‘women’s burden’: how washing clothes and grinding corn became issues of social justice and development
Overview
Women’s heavy and unequal responsibilities for care, long considered ordinary or insignificant by development workers as well as the wider public, are being reframed as issues of social justice through new methodologies for communities to analyse care work and advocate for change. Oxfam and local partners in the Philippines, Honduras, and Bangladesh are piloting two approaches. The first, Rapid Care-Analysis, uses focus groups to assess the local provision of care, identify problems, and propose solutions, reframing care as a compelling issue for both women and men. The second, the Household Care Survey, can be used to gather evidence to persuade governments and aid donors to invest in infrastructure to lessen the practical load of care work. This article shares the experience so far of evolving and piloting these innovative methods.
This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis. For the full table of contents for this and previous issues of this journal, please visit the Gender and Development website.
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