Season 2, Ep 7: There’s an Eruption in My Living Room! The Care Economy, Part 1

Caregiving is a second economy that requires a skilled workforce all its own. Yet, women are its main drivers, leaving us tired and worn out, and making it nigh impossible to compete in the workplace. We cannot achieve gender parity without more support. The pandemic showed us that caregivers and those we tend to deserve better. Dr. Nithila Peter joins us in a 2 part series to discuss solutions. 

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If you would like to learn more about today’s topic:

Unfinished Business by Anne Marie Slaughter 

Secrets of the Sprakkar by Eliza Reid

Blessing Adesiyan, the Founder and CEO of Mother Honestly, is a good resource

1:00 Women are disproportionately responsible for the caring of others

1:41 Definition of the care economy https://research.american.edu

2:20 Women have less time and energy for our careers 

3:06 Pandemic made matters worse

4:07 Society doesn’t value caregiving

5:08 Dr. Nithila Peter is joining us today

6:04 Connection between emotional intelligence and the giving of care

9:15 Caregivers make the best employees

10:03 Example of Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft 

11:20 Mentors, coaches, and managers are or should be caregivers

12:06 The pandemic caused many caregivers to collapse

13:35 View of caregiving as “women’s work”

14:29 Students equated caregiving skills to the skills of a janitor

17:30 Caregiving should be more equitably handled by all genders

19:13 We all need to be open to learning these important caregiving skills

21:30 Parents grow skills by being caregivers

23:30, 25:10 Providing care is akin to rocket science

27:22 Stop gender stereotyping

28:12 Lack of support systems for people who want to be caregivers and breadwinners

31:00 How the Indian culture offers support for caregivers

35:00 High cost of caregiving keeps some women home

37:25 Some women don’t have power in their own homes to allocate resources to caregiving

38:40 Women must have equality at home to have equality in the workplace

40:33 Iceland supports caregivers

41:15 Iceland is the most gender equal country in the world

41:51 Organizations can provide support if governments do not

42:00 Former CEO of Pepsi, Indra Nooyi supports more visibility of caregiving at work

47:15 Role of feminism in the care economy

48:34 Most women are breadwinners and caregivers

50:10 Working stands in the way of caregiving vs. caregiving stands in the way of working

51:00 Woman leader published article saying women should reconsider having children

53:45 Sheryl Sandberg did not tell us to lean into motherhood

54:50 Caregiving needs to be more visible

55:25 Pipeline of women talent is completely broken due to caregiving pressures

58:05 We need to talk more about caregiving responsibilities at work

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Co-Hosts: Deborah Pollack-Milgate and Cathy Nestrick 

Email CathyAndDeborah@par-ity.com with questions or comments