This document provides an overview of a research project in Rwanda that studied how women balance unpaid care work and paid work. The project aimed to understand how women's economic empowerment programs can both empower women through paid work and better support their unpaid care responsibilities. Key findings included that women primarily undertake childcare and household tasks, paid work is often far from home, and balancing the two types of work leads to depletion and impacts childcare. The document recommends that future programs focus on decent work closer to home, childcare support, infrastructure to support businesses, and changing social norms around unpaid work responsibilities.

1. Balancing unpaid care
work and paid work:
Findings from GrOW research in Rwanda
NATIONAL DISSEMINATION WORKSHOP
KIGALI, 22 SEPTEMBER 2017

2. Outline
 Overview of project
◦ Aims
◦ Key terms and definitions
◦ Research questions
◦ Programmes under study
◦ Methodology and sample
 Findings
◦ Social organisation of care
◦ Paid work experiences
◦ Balancing paid work and unpaid care work
 Learnings and implications for future programmes and policy

3. OVERVIEW

4. Aim of the project
To create knowledge about how women’s economic
empowerment (WEE) policy and programming can generate
a ‘double boon’:
Creating paid work that empowers women and provides
more support for their unpaid care work responsibilities.

6. Key terms
Women’s Economic Empowerment:
A process-oriented approach that does not take paid employment of women as its
goal but aims to enable women to choose the type and location of employment,
and which in turn enables women to work without deepening their time poverty or
worrying about the quality of care for their families.
Unpaid Care Work:
Direct care of people (children, elderly people, persons with disabilities) and
household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and water and fuel collection.
Depletion:
Depletion happens at the individual, household, and community, and is otherwise
known as the negative effects of the ‘double burden’.
Double boon:
Paid work that empowers women and provides more support for their unpaid care
work responsibilities.

7. Key terms continued…
Optimisation of women’s economic participation:
Process whereby women (the carers) are enabled to work without deepening
their time poverty, or them worrying about the amount and quality of care their
families are receiving. This in turn makes it possible for them to choose better-
paid and more empowering types of work (access to work and conditions at
work place), rather than being forced into low-paid ‘flexible’ work.
Sharing of gains of women’s economic empowerment:
Process whereby gains are shared across all females in the family such that
younger girls and older women are not left to carry the burden and are
disempowered as a result; and that economic benefits are not eroded because
of the cost of substitute care.
Sustaining the gains of women’s economic empowerment across generations:
Process whereby gains are accrued to those that are cared for –notably children
– such as ensuring that childcare arrangements do not deteriorate but rather
improve, as a result of their mothers’ paid work.

8. Research Questions
How can women’s economic empowerment (WEE) policies and
programmes take unpaid care work into account in order to
enable women’s economic empowerment to be optimised, shared
across families and sustained across generations?
1) How do women in low income families balance unpaid care and paid work/
income-earning activities?
2) To what extent and how do WEE programmes and policies take unpaid care
tasks into account?
3) How can WEE programmes and policies enable economic empowerment
that is Optimised, Shared and Sustained?

9. Programmes under study
Choice of programmes:
◦ Mode of delivery (state/non-state)
◦ Focus on WEE
State-run programme:
Vision 2020 Umurenge Programme (VUP) Public Work
Non-state-run programme:
ActionAid’s Food Security and Economic Empowerment
Programme

10. VUP – Public Works
Any adult able
to work?
Public
Works
Direct
Support
No
Yes
Ubudehe 1
and 2

11. ActionAid’s Food Security and
Economic Empowerment Programme
 Implemented in Muko sector, northern
Rwanda
 Includes a combination of:
o (i) farmer cooperatives;
o (ii) the establishment of community seed
banks, regeneration of the Susa stream,
and agriculture-based training sessions;
o (iii) the construction of a maize
processing plant and cold room for
storing stock

12. Study sites
Muko: Action Aid programme
Simbi: VUP
Gishamvu: VUP
Mbazi: ‘Control’
Huye
district
Musanze
district

13. Methodology
Quantitative surveys
Women (primary caregivers) with children
under 6
121 with programme participants
79 with non-programme participants
Total:
Total of 200 surveys across four sites
Qualitative methods
Household case studies with women with
children under 6 and various family members
17 with programme participants
13 with non-programme participants
Total:
Total of 30 case studies across four sites
Key informant interviews
community members and programme staff
Total:
6 across all sites
Participatory research
9 tools (what if, activity mapping, care body
map, …)
groups (women only, men only, girls only, mixed
adult group….)
• Total: 36 participatory exercises
Mixed methods approach

14. Sample
Name of Site WEE participants Non – WEE participants
No. of women
surveyed
No. of women
interviewed for
case study
No. of women
surveyed
No. of women
interviewed for
case study
S1 – Muko
(Musanze):
Action Aid
59 7 37 7
S2 – Simbi
(Huye): VUP
34 9 21 0
S3 – Gishamvu
(Huye): VUP
28 1 3 0
S4 – Mbazi
(Huye) - control
0 0 18 6

15. Demographic characteristics
of sample - age
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Gishamvu Simbi Mbazi Muko
% of respondents in each age group
18-29. 30-39. 40-49. 50-59.

16. Demographic characteristics
of sample – family type
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Gishamvu
Simbi
Mbazi
Muko
% of respondents per family type
Extended family Nuclear family

17. Demographic characteristics of
sample – presence of adult male
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Gishamvu
Simbi
Mbazi
Muko
% of respondents with adult males available/ not available
No Yes

18. FINDINGS

19. Social organisation
of care

20. Social organisation of care
“In [Rwanda’s] culture, women are the
ones responsible for doing most care
activities though husband may help”.
Ingabire Eliza, 28, divorced single mother,
three sons, farmer, Muko
“I and my siblings receive the care from
our parents but most especially my
mother”.
Kajyambere Eugene, son of Ineza Alice,
Simbi

21. Child care
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Gishamvu VUP
Simbi VUP
Mbazi Control
Muko AAR
woman respondent only woman & husband
mixed sharing (male and females irrespective of age) women only (irrespective of age)
non-household members others only

22. Inside household work
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Gishamvu VUP
Simbi VUP
Mbazi Control
Muko AAR
woman respondent only woman & husband
mixed sharing (male and females irrespective of age) women only (irrespective of age)
non-household members spouses only
others only

23. Outside household work
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Gishamvu VUP
Simbi VUP
Mbazi Control
Muko AAR
woman respondent only woman & husband
mixed sharing (males and females irrespective of age) women only (irrespective of age)
non-household members Others only

24. Gender norms of paid work
94.2
2.1
95.8
5.8
25.9
3.7
8.5
2.7
16.9
2.8
93.4
16.5
8.2
37.9
40.7
50.0
care
hhrepair
hhtasks
animals
agriculture
paid work
WEE
decision-making
social relations
Perceptions of suitability of men or women for certain tasks
women are better men are better

25. Paid work experiences

26. Paid work experiences
“It is difficult to take care of
children if they are still
young. If they have to go for
paid work, the care for the
children is not enough and
some [women] might fear to
participate”.
Niyigena Daniel, key informant
interview, Huye

27. Main types of work
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Home-based work inside the house (e.g. handicraft)
Home-based work outside the house (e.g. agricultural work on
compound/ plot/ own land)
Income-generating activities/self-employment (including domestic
work)
Agricultural/non-agricultural daily wage labour (including
construction)
Factory work for employer
Office work for employer
WEE programme participation
No paid work
Type of paid work that women is currently undertaking

28. Distance to work site
23.4
37.2
28.7
9.6
1
9
32
38
19
2
16.7
58.3
25
0
4
42
33
13
8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
0-15 minutes 15-30 minutes 30-60 minutes 1-2 hours more than 2 hours
% of respondents per time taken to work site
Muko SIMBI Mbazi Gishamvu

29. Importance of income
69.9
15.1 15.1
100
65.3
23.6
6.9 4.2
Very important Important Not so important Not important at
all
% of respondent reporting importance of income across types
of work
Agricultural daily wage labour Non-agricultural daily wage labour
WEE programme participation

30. Value of paid work
“When I do the paid work, I am able
to support my family in one way or
another. I can buy food and solve
some simple home problems that
require money.”
Uwera Claudine, 40, divorced single
mother, one daughter and one son
living with her, farmer, Mbazi
Women’s contributions mean they “have
been able to gain respect in their
households by their husbands because
they also now bring something at home”.
Muhizi John, KII, Muko
“I do not get paid regularly and … when
there is no job then it is difficult to find
food for my children”.
Mukamwezi Josepha,45, single mother,
three daughters and three sons, VUP
participant and daily wage labourer

31. Gender norms of paid work
“Men in the family should do paid
work because they are the heads
of the family. They must do paid
[work] to support their families;
they are also the most energetic
people who can afford most paid
work tasks”.
Murekezi Athanase, husband of
Muhoza Esperance, Muko
“My husband and I are ones who are
supposed to do paid work since we are
mature people and the ones who hold
the responsibilities for the family. This
requires us to be the ones to perform the
paid work”
Munyana Liliose, 42, married, two
daughters and a son, farmer, Muko

32. Balancing paid work
and unpaid care work

33. Depletion
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Gishamvu Simbi Mbazi Muko
# hours during which women were multi-tasking

34. Depletion
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Gishamvu VUP
Simbi VUP
Mbazi Control
Muko AAR
WEE Non-WEE
# hours which women spent exclusively on self-care

35. Balancing paid and unpaid work
“I get home tired and now I start
doing the unpaid care and there is
also a client who wants me to help
repair his clothes and my baby
wants to breast feed, so it
becomes too much for me and I
end up failing to get time to rest”.
Abayisenga Dancile, 46, married,
four sons and one daughter, tailor,
Mbazi
“My wife sometimes gets so tired due to
combining both paid and unpaid work.
As a result, she misses out some care
work at home. We take super very late
and little time is given to children”.
Hakizimana Fabrice, husband of
Munyana Liliose, Muko

36. Impact on children
“Combining both paid and unpaid
work also affects the children so
much since sometimes they go to
bed before eating; especially when
the food is prepared late and they
cannot wait until the food is
ready”.
Hakizimana Fabrice, husband of
Munyana Liliose, Muko
“My children do not get me when they
are in need. The reason is that I am
always busy with paid and unpaid
work”.
Muhoza Esperance, 34, married, three
sons and one daughter, farmer, Muko

37. Learnings and
implications for future
programmes and policy

38. Decent work
General
 More employment
 Better wages
WEE programming (general)
 Work that is closer to home/ provision of transport to reduce travel time
 Allow flexible working times to facilitate childcare arrangements
 Provide or facilitate childcare
VUP programming
 More timely payment (within a few days or one week after work)
 Private spaces for breastfeeding

39. Enabling environment
Infrastructure
 Better feeder roads to markets
 Spaces/ buildings for hosting business activity
 Better access to water and sanitation facilities, as well as cooking fuel, to
reduce drudgery
Income-generating activities
 Provision of credit to start businesses
 Provision of inputs/ assets to start businesses
 Training and capacity building to start businesses
Childcare facilities
 NGOs to facilitate or set up community childcare centres

40. Recognition and redistribution
Within households
 Advocacy in support more equal distribution of unpaid care work
responsibilities
 Provision of health insurance to reduce burden on women for caring of sick
people
Across households and within communities
 Communities to be more involved in child care for other community
members

41. Thank you!
For more project background information,
publications and access to datasets and
case studies, visit
interactions.ids.ac.uk/wee