Mr Prime Minister, Mr President: What’s on your mind when you think about women

Written by Sharan Burrow for the Huffington Post

An Internet discussion was sparked by a man asking his wife, ”What’s on your mind?” She drew him a map of her thoughts, which he posted on Reddit.

Work, co-workers, students, parents, bills, dirt, children created a massive mind map and an insight into the multiple layers of women’s lives.

Familiar to many, it was a surprise to others.

Globally, women spend twice as much time as men on unpaid care work, including domestic or household tasks, as well as caring for family at home and in the community.

When women are expected to bear the burden of unpaid work, everyone loses.

Governments looking to grow economies in this era of instability would be well advised to look at the return on investments in women and the care economy.

The ripple effect of women lives on families, communities and economies is a multiplier that would please most finance ministers.

A recent OECD Policy Brief on the prevalence of parental leave asked Where are the fathers?

Missing in action should have been the reply.

The statisticians and researchers at the OECD found the share of men among parental leave users goes up to 40 per cent or more in some Nordic countries and in Portugal, but is as low as one in fifty in Australia, the Czech Republic and Poland.

G20 leaders who are determined to increase women’s participation by twenty five percent need to recognize the multifaceted role of women in society to meet this target.

A female mind map is a good place to start.

To enable this ambition there must be investment in care; child care, aged care, disability care, health and education which are essential social support structures to enable women to work.

A new study Investing in the Care Economy found that investment of 2 per cent of GDP in to social infrastructure or the care sector of seven countries would create over 21 million jobs.

Between 58 per cent and 78 per cent of the jobs would be taken by women. The multiplier effect of these jobs would also increase overall men’s employment by up to 4 percent.

The hallmarks of dignified societies include public education, affordable health care, child protection, child care, aged care, maternity protection, support for disabled, minimum wages on which people can live and active labour market programmes.

The ITUC Global Poll found, one in two working families have been hit by the loss of jobs or reduction of working hours. Young women in particular are impacted.

More than half the world’s population say their incomes have fallen behind the cost of living.

The ILO and others calculate that by 2020 seventy-nine percent of the world’s population will have been affected by austerity measures: 83 per cent living in developing countries and 61 per cent in industrialized countries.

Having a job no long guarantees enough to meet basic needs, and women are the majority of the working poor.

In Greece, a transport worker Georgia tells me how after austerity policies, “they have taken away my right to be a mother. I can’t have a child with the money I earn now.”

In Indonesia, Akun a factory worker tells me how working in the supply chain of a multinational companies means, “our wages are not enough to survive, we have to send our children to live with their grandparents, companies should pay a living wage, we are helping them make profits.”

In Turkey Nehir a hospital worker tells me about the heroics of a multitasking woman with long hours and low wages, “I work up to 11 hours a day for a monthly pay of US$500, I can be asked to do everything in that hospital, anything except surgery.”

The world is as risk of further economic instability and solutions lie in the fundamental confidence that comes with decent work.

When working men and women have secure jobs with living wages and social protection they can invest in the economy at levels which increase demand and help overcome the twin challenges of poverty and sustainability.

Recently I was asked why so many women led the successful negotiations for the Paris Climate Agreement.

Christiana Figueres who headed up the climate negotiations, UN Special Envoy Mary Robinson, the World Bank’s Rachel Kyte and Laurence Tubiana for the French Government all worked to bring about a global deal which will set us on a path for a zero carbon future.

If women were in charge of other global negotiations, perhaps working people wouldn’t be facing such troubling times.

We all have to plan for a zero carbon zero poverty future, and investment in women will get us there.

Perhaps putting women in charge will get us there as well.