Presentation by Melissa Wood, WEN Wales, as part of Chwarae Teg's Research Hub on September 29th 2015.

1. Women’s Equality Now: The
Position in Wales Today on
Unpaid Care

2. Women’s Equality Network (WEN) Wales
• Founded in 2010 to represent and support
organisations and individuals working to progress the
rights of women
• Unpaid care = one of the biggest issues facing women
• Commissioned research from the Bevan Foundation

3. Care of children
• 8/10 UK women give birth during their lives
• 45% of all women in Wales lived in a household with a dependant
child
• 27% lived in non couple households
• 94% UK child benefit claims paid to women
• Half of mothers in Wales say they are solely or mainly responsible for
childcare (compared with 4% of fathers)
• In the UK women do 70% of household chores – increasing with
dependent children
• 2/3 of grandmothers look after grandchildren with 19% = 10 hours

4. Unpaid care of adults
• In 2011, 13.8% of women in Wales provided unpaid care to an adult
relative, friend, neighbour or other
• Proportion of women who provide unpaid care increases with age
• 1 in 20 women in Wales provide 50 hours or more unpaid care in a
week
• Women aged 50-64 being most likely to provide this amount of
unpaid care

5. Care and Health
• During pregnancy and the first year after birth, 10-20% of women in
the UK will develop a mental illness
• 50+ hours of care, 47% say health ‘not good’
• 15,400 young female carers (under 24) more than 4 times more likely
to say health is poor
• Carers report difficulty sleeping and high levels of anxiety and stress
and more likely to smoke than non carers

6. Care and Learning
• Having caring responsibilities restricts women’s participation in
learning
• Girls who become pregnant at school have lower attainment than
other girls
• Student mothers in UK FE & HE report financial difficulties and finding
suitable childcare – two-thirds consider leaving
• Young women carers less likely to participate in FE/HE
• Amongst adults, unpaid carers less likely to have participated in any
learning than non carers

7. Care & Paid Work
• In the UK, the proportion of mothers aged 16-24 in paid employment half
that of fathers
• 39% of lone mothers with a child under 3 years are in employment
compared with 65% of mothers in couples
• In the UK, 37% of mothers work part-time and 30% full time compared
with 6% of fathers who work part time and 82% full time
• Only 22% of women with a child aged 1-3 work full time
• Women carers who have a job are nearly three times more likely to work
part time than men carers (46% compared with 16%)
• 17% of unemployed women left their last job to care for someone (1% of
men)

8. Care and income
• Women with dependent children earn 66% of men’s hourly earnings
and 53% of their weekly earnings
• A woman with two children and no qualifications loses 58% of her
lifetime earnings
• Providing unpaid care limits women carers’ earning potential
• Low incomes = significant hardship
• Long-term financial consequences
• 36% of carers in Wales who had left work to care said they would not
be able to save for a pension

9. What next?
• How do we create a Wales that values the contribution of unpaid
carers to society?
• As women get older their caring responsibilities dramatically increase,
what measures are we putting in place to support them?
• Becoming an unpaid carer often pushes women into poverty, how can
Wales ensure this isn’t the case for future generations?
melissa.wood@wenwales.org.uk
www.wenwales.org.uk