Cyprus equality commissioner calls for care investment to boost competitiveness

Dublin, Ireland. Cyprus’ gender equality commissioner Josie Christodoulou has called for investment in care services to be treated as an economic and competitiveness issue, alongside its role in advancing equality.

She spoke at a high-level EU conference examining whether stronger equality policies can improve productivity, labour participation and economic performance.

Conference on equality and competitiveness

Christodoulou took part this week in The EU’s Equality Advantage: How equality powers competitiveness, innovation and social cohesion, organised by the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU and Ireland’s Department of Children, Disability and Equality.

The conference considered whether improved equality policies can also support productivity, labour participation and economic performance across Europe.

Care economy and labour market

Christodoulou spoke on a panel on the care economy and competitiveness, where discussion focused on who carries the burden of care and the implications for the labour market.

Care includes paid and unpaid work, including childcare, support for older people, services for people with disabilities, healthcare and social care.

Gender gap in caring responsibilities

Figures presented by the European Institute for Gender Equality, which also participated in the conference, showed that 36 per cent of women spend more than 35 hours a week caring for children, compared with 18 per cent of men.

The figures also showed that 12 per cent of women with caring responsibilities have left employment because of those responsibilities, compared with fewer than 5 per cent of men.

Economic impact

EIGE cited Eurofound estimates that put the cost of the gender employment gap to the EU economy at about €390 billion in foregone output in 2023.

EIGE’s research estimated that closing gender gaps could raise EU GDP per capita by up to 10 per cent by 2050, create about 10.5 million additional jobs and generate more than €3 trillion in economic gains.