Care work, gender and women’s labour force participation in South Africa, Zambia and Mauritius: a transformative social policy perspective

The impact of care responsibilities on gender equality and women’s participation in the labour market is increasingly being recognised. Less understood is how care is addressed in various contexts in the global South and its implications on women and the attainment of UN SDG 5 on gender equality. Latest statistics from the ILO indicate that unpaid care work is preventing 708 million women from participating in the labour market. Framed within a transformative social policy framework, a multi-method approach involving qualitative literature review and primary data is used to provide a comparative analysis of care provision in South Africa, Mauritius and Zambia and their implications for women and gender equality within the three countries. Preliminary findings indicate that inadequate state support for caregiving, unaffordability of childcare and the lack of parental leave policies constitute the main barriers to gender equality in the labour market. Policies that redistribute care to markets, the state and within the family, challenging persistent gender norms and promoting caring masculinities are associated with improved labour market outcomes for women. These findings have theoretical, policy and practical implications beyond the three cases investigated.