Amman, March 02, 2023 ¨C The burden of unpaid care work falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women in the Mashreq. Short of appropriate support mechanisms within their households or from the state, women in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon often find themselves having to choose between staying out of the labor market or working in a double shift, at home and in the workplace.
Launched today, under the Patronage of H.E Dr. Bisher Al-Khasawneh, the Prime Minister of Jordan, the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Group¡¯s - Care Work and Women¡¯s Labor Market Outcomes in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, examines the potential for care policies to improve women¡¯s labor market outcomes in a region where female labor force participation is among the lowest in the world.
While the structure and generosity of leave policies vary across countries of the Mashreq, they generally reinforce gendered allocation of care responsibilities. Moreover, with limited free public service provision and financial support to households, quality childcare services on the market are largely unaffordable. For many mothers, especially for those with lower education, the cost of childcare services available in the market constitutes a sizeable share of actual or potential labor market earnings, ranging from 25 percent in Jordan to more than 100 percent in Lebanon. As a result, enrollment in childcare services remains low in Mashreq countries.
¡°Existing care policies in Mashreq are not well aligned with the objective of supporting women and mothers who wish to stay or join the labor market,¡¯ said?Jean-Christophe Carret, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ Mashreq Country Director. ¡°Supporting the development of the care sector would have tremendous benefits for children, parents and the overall economies of Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.¡±&²Ô²ú²õ±è;
Every day, mothers in Mashreq spend twice as much time as fathers taking care of children and three times as much time as fathers on domestic chores. For mothers who are employed, their typical ¡°workday¡± ¨C taking into consideration both paid and unpaid work ¨C is 12 to 14 hours long. Not surprisingly, for every hour that a woman spends on unpaid care work, the probability of her being active on the labor market decreases by 1 to 3 percentage points.
¡°There is untapped demand for quality and affordable childcare services,¡± said Silvia Redaelli, Senior Economist and one of the authors of the report. ¡°Addressi