From childcare to long-term care, gaps in formal services leave families to fill the space – where women shoulder much of the responsibility compared to men.
EIGE’s new research shows why investing in care across a life course is a question of gender equality, as well as Europe’s resilience and competitiveness.
Care begins long before we can remember needing it. For many of us, it returns later in life. And in the decades in between, most people will provide it as well as receive it at the same time.
And in terms of who provides more care, the balance still skews heavily towards women.
According to EIGE’s 2024 CARE survey, 36% of women spent more than 35 hours per week caring for children, compared with 18% of men.
In long-term care, women are also more likely to provide more time-intensive care, even if the gender gap is much smaller, 42% of women and 39% of men engage in every day long-term care.
EIGE’s latest policy briefs look at care across the life course – from childcare to long-term care – and at what happens when the support people need is unavailable, unaffordable or difficult to access. Together, they show how the organisation of care can shape women’s employment and, in turn, Europe’s wider ambitions for greater competitiveness and resilience.
The evidence challenges the idea that formal and informal care are competing alternatives. They are parts of the same care system. Formal services can support families to care; where those services fall short, informal care expands to fill the gap.
The problem is that care is still largely viewed as a private responsibility rather than a social and economic investment that enables employment, wellbeing and economic resilience.
And that has very gendered consequences.
When care intensifies, women’s employment pays the price
When childcare is unavailable, unaffordable or does not meet families’ needs, someone has to fill the gap.
Too often, that someone is a woman.
The same pattern can re-emerge later in life when parents, partners or relatives need long-term support. What may begin as a private decision about how a family organises care can therefore have very broad consequences for employment, income and gender equality.
The figures show how quickly those consequences accumulate:
- As care responsibilities intensify in time, women are substantially more likely than men to leave employment. Among people providing the highest levels of childcare, the likelihood of leaving employment increases by around 14 percentage points for women, compared with less than 5 percentage points for men.
- Lower-income carers are most exposed to care-related employment penalties. 27% of lower-income carers report reducing working hours or leaving employment due to care, compared with 20% of middle-income carers and 17% of higher-income carers.
- Formal long-term care services are associated with a smaller gender employment gap. The use of LTC services is associated with a reduction of approximately 1.4 percentage points in the overall gender employment gap, equivalent to around 15% of the gap.
These findings point to the conclusion: that the availability of care services enables more flexibility in combining care responsibilities and paid employment.
Formal care services can change the equation
Investing in and expanding formal care services is one of the strongest actions for supporting labour market integration and participation according to EIGE’s evidence and recommendations to policy makers.
Women using childcare services are generally less likely to leave employment, while formal long-term care is associated with a smaller gender employment gap.
The gains are not only about employment. When quality services and a more equal sharing of care support family life, children benefit from early years education, parents have more scope to work and earn, and men have more room to care for the people they love. The aim is to make work and care fit together, not to place one above the other.
But expanding services also means investing in the people providing them.
Women make up 81% of the EU’s social services workforce, while average hourly pay in the sector remains around 20% below the economy-wide average.
Europe therefore relies heavily on women on both sides of the care system: as the people most likely to step in when unpaid care is needed, and as the majority of the workforce delivering formal care.
A sustainable care system has to address both.
EIGE’s recommendations point to a consolidated approach, covering the whole care system:
- expand affordable, high-quality childcare and long-term care;
- improve pay and working conditions in the care workforce;
- protect informal carers’ employment and income;
- promote a more equal sharing of care between women and men;
- and embed care investment in EU funding decisions.
Families’ choices and wellbeing belong at the heart of care investment. Recognising care as a foundation for social and economic infrastructure, rather than only a private responsibility, gives families more choices about how to combine care and paid work, helps women remain in paid work and strengthens Europe’s capacity to respond to demographic change.
Care lasts a lifetime – and so should Europe’s investment into it.
Explore the policy briefs
Investing in care: Advancing EU competitiveness and gender equality
Investing in childcare for the EU’s social and economic resilience
Investing in childcare for the EU’s social and economic resilience
