POWER: New intervention can reduce unpaid care work burden on women

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Researchers at the Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) have found that a new model known as P.O.W.E.R. can help reduce and redistribute the burden of unpaid care work traditionally borne by women.

Speaking at the launch of these findings, Prof Florence Muhanguzi a lecturer at the Makerere University School of Gender Studies said this social model which involves promoting women’s economic empowerment by among others engaging men and local leaders to challenge entrenched traditional beliefs was found to increase the time women spent in doing paid activities.

P.O.W.E.R stands for Promoting women’s economic empowerment, Organizing men to challenge inequities, Working with communities, Engaging local-level duty bearers, and Reaching out to decision-makers through advocacy.

This study started in 2021 after EPRC’s analysis revealed that despite campaigns and government programs geared towards ensuring more women are released to the labor market, many were still spending up to 5.5 hours each day in unpaid care work such as cooking, cleaning their homes and yet their male counterparts were spending only 3 hours day in unpaid work.

Muhanguzi says they involved 1375 households in the study who were married women and men with their children from districts of Mpigi, Pallisa, Mbarara, and Masindi. These were divided into three groups whereby in one group they introduced the entire POWER model, parts of the model in the other group, and nothing at all in the third group. These were followed up for three years until February this year. Findings show that there was a shift in perceptions in households where the model was employed.

According to Dr. Madina Gulooba, a Senior Researcher at the EPRC, they experienced an increase in time that both men and women spent doing paid work. Also, there was a decrease in the time men spent on leisure.

Reacting to these findings, Aramanzan Madanda, a Gender Technical Advisor at Care International in Uganda said this evidence can be used beyond unpaid care work in other government programs focusing on women.

He says they show that a more holistic approach is better while trying to change mindset and according to him each government program coming up now bears funds for mindset change but this can only yield if they employ a tested model like POWER for the benefits to be realized.

Beyond such models, experts recommend that the government invests more in unpaid care work infrastructure such as childcare facilities as women go out to engage in the labor market.

This study however did not focus on women in the corporate world but in the informal sector for instance those working in agriculture and markets.

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