Child and dependant care,
including sharing of work and
family responsibilities
Even though this change is bound to be slow and
difficult, it remains essential.
6. These changes, which imply a change in outlook,
can be encouraged by Governments, notably
through education and by promoting greater
access on the part of men to activities hitherto
regarded as women's activities.
1. Questions relating to child and dependant care,
to sharing of family tasks and responsibilities and
to unremunerated work must be taken fully into
account in mainstreaming a gender perspective,
in gender analysis and in all other relevant methodologies used to promote equality between men
and women.
C. Changing attitudes and stereotypes
7. It is important to change attitudes towards the
status of unremunerated work and the relative role
of women and men in the family, the community,
the workplace and society at large. Measures taken
to this end must be aimed as much at women as at
men, and at the different generations, with particular attention to adolescents.
2. The main lines of action suggested in order to
reduce the burden of family responsibilities on
women and bring about the sharing of these
responsibilities are set out below.
A. Recognizing change
8. These measures should include recognition of the
social and economic importance of unremunerated
work, and should aim at desegregating the labour
market through, inter alia, the adoption and application of laws embodying the principle of equal
pay for women and men for equal work or work of
equal value.
3. Economic, social and demographic changes - par-
ticularly the growing participation of women in
economic and social life, the evolving nature of
family structures, the feminization of poverty and
the link that exists with unremunerated work - and
their impact on the capacity of families to ensure
the care of children and dependants, as well as
the sharing of family responsibilities, including for
domestic work, is an issue that affects not only
women but society as a whole.
9. The essential role of the educational system,
particularly in primary schools, in changing the
perception of the role of girls and boys, must be
recognized. The role of national mechanisms and
of non-governmental organizations in promoting
change is a major one.
4. As was emphasized in the first plans and strategies
drawn up at the national level for the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action, the sharing of
family responsibilities and their reconciliation with
professional life must constitute a priority objective.
D. Adapting the legal system
10. There is a need, through legislation and/or other
appropriate measures, to rebalance the sharing of
family responsibilities between men and women, and
to inform them of the existing legislative provisions.
B. Increasing the role of men in family
responsibilities
11. Reconciliation of work-related and family respon-
5. Family responsibilities rest equally with men and
sibilities and the development of a legislative
framework for ensuring child and dependant care
(particularly of the elderly and disabled) must be
promoted by society as a whole, including social
with women. Greater participation of men in
family responsibilities, including domestic work and
child and dependant care, would contribute to the
welfare of children, women and men themselves.
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