Gender and Care: A Conceptual Approach to Care Mobility

The concept of care refers to the work performed by adult individuals for children, the elderly, people with illnesses or disabilities, and, in general, for the functioning of the home, community, or environment. This work can be paid, but mostly it is unpaid and has a significant feminization component, where historically it has not been considered as productive work; however, its importance lies in sustaining the workforce and has been invisibilized in society's economy.

The care economy is defined as the work performed and value created, primarily in the domestic sphere. Under this logic, and in order to consider its contribution to the national economy, Law 1413 of 2010 was enacted, which determines the need to include "the care economy in the national accounts system in order to measure women's contribution to the country's economic and social development and as a fundamental tool for the definition and implementation of public policies." The law defines the care economy as: "unpaid work carried out in the home, related to the maintenance of the household, care for other household or community members, and the maintenance of the paid workforce. This category of work is of fundamental economic importance in society." It also acknowledges that many individuals participate in the labor market with precarious conditions, leading to conflicts in managing care-related responsibilities.

Focused on unpaid domestic and care work, the law considers activities such as: Organization, distribution, and supervision of household tasks; food preparation; cleaning and maintenance of the home and belongings; laundry; childcare, education, and assistance with school tasks; care for the elderly and sick; shopping, payments, or household-related errands.; home repairs and community services and unpaid assistance to relatives, friends, and neighbors.

Similarly, globally, the burdens and gaps generated by the care economy are beginning to be recognized. In 2015, all United Nations member states signed the 2030 Agenda, where Goal 5 aims to "achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls."

Recognizing the achievement of this goal requires different actions and perspectives, leading to the establishment of 9 targets, where the fourth target states: "Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure, and social protection policies, and promote shared responsibility within the household and the family, as appropriate in each country." Thus, unpaid domestic and care work is identified as a facet of gender equity issues, acknowledging the need to generate strategies to recognize, redistribute, and professionalize care-related work.

Mobility and Gender: A Reflection from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

Mobility and gender are two categories that reveal social inequalities and invisibilities in mobility. However, when intersected, they show that mobility not only expresses inequality but also reproduces gender inequalities. This reflection becomes possible when analyzed from an interdisciplinary perspective that acknowledges the need to look beyond disciplinary boundaries. It is crucial for mobility studies and policymaking to incorporate a gender perspective because the invisibility of women has led to transportation planning that does not meet women's needs.

Gender and mobility constitute a dichotomy that has been underexplored in public policies, as they tend to focus on the dominant subject, in this case, men. However, mobility is a complex practice that, as a social phenomenon, allows us to understand not only physical movement and how it is regulated and conditioned through networks and infrastructures but also generates experiences and emotions. Moreover, mobility, as a constituent element of the city, contributes to reproducing inequalities, particularly gender inequalities.

Care Mobility: An Umbrella Concept

There is a type of mobility that is least studied, as very few cities contemplate conducting mobility surveys (which homogenize and view women as a homogeneous group) considering this umbrella concept to quantify and visualize the movements made by predominantly women for caregiving purposes and household care: care mobility. The concept of 'care mobility' was introduced by Inés Sánchez de Madariaga in 2009, identifying the need to differentially understand daily trips related to caregiving activities. This need arises from how mobility is planned in different cities, focusing on trips with origins and destinations related to work or study and residence. Therefore, movements associated with the care economy are often overlooked, assuming linear trips within predefined routes attributed to caregivers, who are predominantly women within the family.

From a gender perspective, analyzing modern urban planning and applying the concept of 'care' invites us to consider men's and women's lives. The concept encompasses all activities necessary for the maintenance and reproduction of life, which are generally unpaid, unequally distributed, and attributed to gender roles and norms (sexual division of labor), widening the gender gap as women continue to assume double and triple burdens of work, including caregiving tasks. These realities intersect with other factors such as age, race, among others, which can exacerbate discrimination.

It is here that transportation must ensure a minimum level of safety, comfort, and affordability, taking into account caregiving, household maintenance, and caregiving for individuals. Following transportation, city planning should review how to configure the necessary infrastructure and services for daily life (childcare, elderly care). Moreover, developing policies that improve mobility, with a gender and care perspective, has a direct impact on the entire population. Supporting public transportation systems, non-polluting modes of transportation, and transportation systems that enable women to engage in employment and household activities is crucial because caregiving tasks continue to be assigned to women and have not been adequately redistributed between men and women, despite policies developed in recent years.

Why Discuss Gender in the Context of Care Mobility?

When discussing the economy and care mobility, direct reference is made to caregiving roles, which, as shown in previous sections, have a differential cultural burden depending on whether they are performed by men or women. For example, in 2017, 89.4% of caregivers for people with disabilities requiring permanent assistance in their daily activities were women.

Other variables besides the gender of individuals must be considered to assess the depth of these inequities. While for individuals with higher education, the distribution of burdens is approximately for every hour men dedicate to unpaid care work, women dedicate 3 hours. For those without any educational level, the ratio is 1 hour for every 5 hours assigned to women. Another associated characteristic revealing the unequal burdens associated with caregiving roles is age: for those under 18, women perform 3 hours of unpaid care work for every 2 hours performed by men, while among those aged 18 to 44, women perform 3 hours for every 1 hour of men, and for those over 45, women perform 4 hours for every 1 hour of men.

In this way, among many others, the disparity in the burdens associated with caregiving roles for those who reproduce feminine versus masculine roles is evident, where the responsibility for caregiving disproportionately falls on women. Therefore, analyzing the impacts due to time devoted to caregiving cannot overlook the unequal burden borne by women.

Furthermore, understanding and visualizing care mobility have the potential to reduce gaps, as the omission of care mobility can lead to an increase in the inequality gaps generated by caregiving-related burdens. To develop caregiving trips and considering that mobility often disregards actors associated with caregiving, individuals make adaptations to their trips to meet their relevant parameters, often resulting in increased road risks, which opens up an analysis perspective of road safety, gender, and care mobility.

Finally, the possibility of having or not having access to the city, of guaranteeing the right to the city, lies in the capacity of those who plan mobility and urbanism to include the gender perspective and recognize care mobility. Care, therefore, becomes a motivator for trips. When these two categories are not taken into account as analytical categories for transportation and mobility planning, they limit people's ability to move and enjoy their surroundings, while also increasing the burdens already associated with the care economy.

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