Gendered Patterns of Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in the Urban Informal Settlements of Nairobi, Kenya: Findings from a Household Care Survey 2019
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Date
2019
Authors
Maina, Lucy W.
Kimani, Elishba
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Oxfam International
Abstract
Unpaid care and domestic work (UCDW) underpins all
societies and contributes to wellbeing, social
development and economic growth. Around the world,
women spend disproportionately more time than men
caring for children, the elderly and the sick, and on
cooking, cleaning and household tasks. Yet, while UCDW
contributes $10 trillion of output per year – roughly
equivalent to 13% of global GDP (World Bank, 2012) – it
remains largely invisible, unrecognized and absent from
public policies. Positively, the adoption of ILO Resolution I
concerning statistics on work relationships, will mean an
estimated 650 million unpaid carers globally will be now
be counted as part of the labour force. Women and girls’
greater responsibility for UCDW results in opportunity
costs that can hinder their ability to enjoy their rights
and freedoms to decent work, education, health, rest
and leisure. The unequal distribution of UCDW between
women and men further limits women’s opportunities for
economic empowerment and political participation. Since 2013, Oxfam’s Women’s Economic Empowerment
and Care (WE-Care) initiative has worked to produce new
methodologies and context-specific evidence about care
work to enable development actors and policy makers to
address heavy and unequal care work for women and
girls. WE-Care is currently implemented in six countries1
across South-East Asia and Africa, including Kenya, in
partnership with national women’s rights organizations,
civil society and the private sector.
Between October 2018 and March 2019, Oxfam in Kenya
commissioned a Household Care Survey (HCS) to
understand household patterns of UCDW in the five
informal settlements of Kibera, Mathare, Mukuru,
Kawangware and Korogocho in Nairobi City. The objectives of this research were to:
• Establish how UCDW is distributed between the sexes
and age groups in the five informal settlements.
• Understand mediating factors affecting the distribution
of UCDW in households.
• Explore women and men’s perceptions and attitudes
towards UCDW, including its perceived social value.
• Analyse household and individual characteristics and
arrangements that facilitate or hinder the equal sharing
of UCDW at household and community level.
• Develop policy recommendations for government and key
stakeholders to address UCDW.
Locally, the Kenya HCS was anchored within Oxfam in
Kenya’s Women Rights Programme’s urban interventions,
which aim to ensure that people in urban areas are
empowered and have choices and opportunities to live
safe, secure and productive lives. The study was carried out
under Oxfam’s WE-Care and Wezesha Jamii projects, the
latter of which supports the economic empowerment of
poor and vulnerable women domestic workers and small-
scale traders in the informal settlements of Kibera, Mathare,
Mukuru, Kawangware and Korogocho in Nairobi City.
The HCS was carried out using a cross-sectional analytical
survey design. Over 30,000 women engaged in the Wezesha
Jamii project (20,000 women small-scale traders and 10,000
women domestic workers) were targeted. Male heads of
households also constituted part of the study respondents,
and were selected based on their partnership with or
marriage to the women beneficiaries. A total of 328 women,
42 men and 93 children (48 male and 45 female) took part in
the study. The low number of male respondents relative to
females was a limitation of the survey, meaning that robust
statistical testing using males could not be carried out. The
findings and recommendations were validated with survey
respondents, community representatives, civil society
organizations and government stakeholders.
Description
A research report published under Oxfam's Women's Economic Empowerment and Care Program
Keywords
Household Care Survey, Unpaid care and domestic work, WE-Care
Citation
Maina, L. W., & Kimani, E. (2019). Gendered patterns of Unpaid Care and Domestic Work in the Urban Informal Settlements of Nairobi, Kenya: Findings from a Household Care Survey–2019.