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The burden of care鈥攖he time, energy, and costs of caring for other people鈥攊s growing, and women shoulder the heaviest load. This burden can have negative consequences for businesses, too, as it affects the health and productivity of workers, as well as economic growth. At a recent 乐鱼 体育 Ground Truth Briefing, four leading experts discussed the ways in which progressive policies could help balance the burden of care to increase economic productivity and benefit both employers and employees. 

Sarah Gammage, Director of Gender, Economic Empowerment, and Livelihoods, ICRW

Caretaking is 鈥渇undamental for the reproduction of the workforce,鈥� said . 鈥淚t enables children to develop the cognitive and emotional skills to become productive and peaceful adults and participate fully in economic, social, and political life. But it remains disproportionally feminized. Around the globe, women spend significantly more time on unpaid care work than men, including twice as much on housework and four times as much work on child care.鈥�

鈥淚 think [social change] should be done within a framework of the right to care and be cared for, recognizing that we all have the right to care鈥攁nd to be cared for鈥攁nd that we will all need care at difference points of our lives,鈥� said Gammage.

Kim Parker, Director of Social Trends Research, Pew Research Center

The Pew Research Center has found that the gender wage gap among millennials is almost non-existent, said , the director of social trends research at Pew Research Center. 鈥淚 think millennial women were making 93 cents on the dollar that millennial men were making. So it鈥檚 a gap, but much smaller than you see for all women. But when we asked millennial women about their future in the workforce, the majority of them anticipated that when they started to have children and a family鈥here would be setbacks,鈥� she said.

Pew鈥檚 research on paid family leave discovered that a lack of paid family leave has a disproportionate effect on low-income workers. 鈥淚n the last two years, 62 percent of workers with incomes under $30,000 received no pay at all during that time off. And to compensate for the lost wages, 48 percent of them said they had to go on public assistance,鈥� said Parker.

Jocelyn Ulrich, Senior Director of Global Policy and External Affairs, EMD Serono, Inc.

鈥淎ccording to the International Labor Organization, 865 million women around the globe, are not reaching their potential to contribute fully to the economy due to preventable causes鈥攁nd a lot of those are related to health,鈥� said Jocelyn Ulrich, EMD Serono鈥檚 Senior Director of Global Policy and External Affairs. 鈥淎nd when we think about the burden of care, there are very real health impacts that are resulting from this 谤别蝉辫辞苍蝉颈产颈濒颈迟测.鈥�

Since 2015, EMD Serono has been the leading private sector partner in an initiative called Healthy Women, Healthy Economies, which produced a  on how to make substantive differences in women鈥檚 health and economic empowerment. 鈥淲e, at the company, have taken that mission internally as part of our core focus, particularly focused on this work-life integration piece, looking at the impact of caregiving on women, their health and economic empowerment, and looking to implement policies within the company,鈥� said Ulrich.

Gwen Young, Director of the Global Women鈥檚 Leadership Initiative and Women in Public Service Project, 乐鱼 体育

 鈥淚n both the private sector and in the public sector, [if] you have more women around the table, you have more creative solutions, you have solutions that benefit the company, you have a bigger return on investment,鈥� said Gwen Young, the director of the 乐鱼 体育鈥檚 Global Women鈥檚 Leadership Initiative, which is seeking to ensure that of government leadership positions are held by women by 2050.

Young women entering the work force should 鈥渢ake the that鈥檚 there鈥egotiate for that change within your company, within your family, within your school system,鈥� said Young. 鈥淭he evidence is out there, package it, and ask for it.鈥�