In Mexico, millions of women face a double workday between unpaid caregiving and their professional lives, which limits their access to jobs, promotions, and entrepreneurship opportunities. A comprehensive care system is essential to balance responsibilities, strengthen female talent, and build more equitable societies.
In Mexico, nearly 20 million women dedicate their time to caring for others. This work includes attending to children, older adults, or accompanying relatives who are ill or have disabilities; these are essential, everyday tasks. Although these activities also contribute to social well-being, they are generally unpaid. However, this role directly influences women’s professional trajectories: it affects their ability to enter or remain in the labor market, advance professionally, or start a business.
According to INEGI (2023), 86.3% of the care for children aged 0 to 5 falls on mothers, as well as 81.7% of children aged 6 to 11 and 77.9% of adolescents aged 12 to 17. In the case of older adults, 32.4% are cared for by daughters or granddaughters. Additionally, 28.8% of women caregivers report that they cannot work outside the home; 23% have had to reduce their working hours, and 8.6% state that these responsibilities have affected their professional lives. In other words, caregiving has a cost that is not economically quantified and can result in stalled promotions, reduced pensions, and missed entrepreneurial opportunities.
Unpaid domestic work further complicates this reality. The CIMAD (2024) study “Decent Work” shows that men have seven more free hours per week than women, even when both are employed. This difference reflects the limited time men dedicate to domestic and caregiving tasks. Although male participation has increased in recent years, a cultural shift in gender roles is still needed to prevent the double workday experienced by working women.
These imbalances also affect the presence of women in senior management and on corporate boards, where their participation remains low. The time and energy spent on caregiving reduce their opportunities to network or specialize.
A similar situation occurs in the realm of entrepreneurship: many women choose self-employment or small businesses as a strategy to balance their caregiving responsibilities. However, the long hours dedicated to household tasks make it difficult to grow their business, access credit, expand their networks, or professionalize their projects. The result is often a survival-based venture, despite the fact that—with time equivalent to that of men—it could have developed significantly.
Care is essential at both the family and social levels
In the case of childcare, it ensures the well-being and future development of the child; its absence can lead to health or learning issues that affect adulthood and future labor productivity. For adults, caregiving is indispensable for reducing risks associated with lack of nutrition, medication, or personal safety.
Integrating professional life and caregiving is possible when society has systems that facilitate conciliation. Problems arise when caregivers—mostly women—do not have a support network that enables them to balance their professional duties with caregiving. Without such a network, the physical and emotional strain, combined with the lack of recreation and rest, can lead to burnout or other conditions that compromise their well-being.
The value of a comprehensive care system
To ensure that families and their members can thrive, it is advisable to develop a comprehensive care system in which children, adolescents, older adults, and people with disabilities are cared for by trained and specialized personnel who promote their well-being through activities, collaborative workshops, cooperative games, and dynamics that stimulate movement and cognitive development. This system would require adequate spaces that encourage social interaction and create emotional bonds beyond the family context.
Currently, there are schools, nursing homes, and community centers that—with appropriate adjustments—could provide care for different age groups. In Europe, for example, schools have been adapted to integrate spaces dedicated to older adult care in response to population aging. Additionally, intergenerational experiences between older adults and children have been promoted with positive outcomes for both groups.
Companies and families must transform certain social beliefs to include both women and men in caregiving and in caregiving-related professions. It is essential to promote new models of co-responsibility and inclusion that encourage the involvement of both genders in these activities, in order to build societies where the talent of women and men is strengthened, and the family remains a shared care environment where all members contribute time and effort.
Article originally published at https://www.efinf.com/clipviewer/files/a028b17369c7eaa26584d79f235a7d51.pdf
