Embracing The Future Of Care In 2024
including changes and challenges in modern caregiving
Happy New Year! For those who are new here, I usually take the month of December off to focus on my mental health, wellbeing, and loved ones. Its a month I look forward to every year to practical radical unplugging but also to refresh, renew, and rejuvenate. It’s something I hope everyone can practice in some shape or form within a calendar year. This could be summer, spring, or Fall where there is ruthless downtime to focus on other aspects of your life besides work that sparks joy.
This year, I am looking forward to how we close the care gap across the United States, Africa, and globally. There are so many aspects to care that we’ve identified as crucial for a thriving workplace and economy:
Aging Care
Childcare
Disability Care
Employee Care
Care Workers
Health Care (home-based to improve health outcomes)
Climate Care
Care Economy
I am sure there are more and we shouldn’t stop here. Care is the only work that makes other work possible. Many people have asked me, how can we close the care gap in 2024? And so I spent some time thinking about the little ways you can close the gap this new year without spending one more cent, but by simply changing your mindset, behaviors, and expectations. Here are a few categorized under Individuals and Employers:
Individuals
Promoting Gender Equality in Household Responsibilities: In 2024, it's essential to move beyond outdated norms where women are expected to leave work and immediately engage in household chores, cooking, and childcare, while men remain uninvolved. The practice of men depending on women for meals, laundry, and cleaning, despite being fully capable, should be left behind.
Encouraging Women's Wellbeing: This year, it's crucial for women to prioritize their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. Letting oneself go is no longer an option. Women are encouraged to actively invest in their wellbeing and show up for themselves.
Redefining Relationship Dynamics: Single women are advised to understand that engaging in excessive unpaid household work doesn't necessarily equate to being loved more in a relationship. It's important to question if taking on roles such as a caregiver in a budding relationship without mutual agreement is truly beneficial.
Balanced Household Duties Among Children: Parents should ensure that household responsibilities are equally distributed among their children, irrespective of gender. Young girls shouldn't be burdened with all the cleaning and cooking while boys are exempted.
Respecting the Role of Stay-at-Home Partners: Men are encouraged to respect the role of their stay-at-home partners. This role shouldn't automatically extend to being a maid, cleaner, or cook. The year 2024 is about leaving such expectations in the past.
A Call To Care For Mothers: Mothers are called to reclaim their lives and not overburden themselves. This year is about looking and feeling good, investing in personal care, and not conforming to the stereotype of the perpetually tired mother.
Increased Involvement from Fathers: Fathers are expected to actively participate in home management, moving away from the mindset of solely being financial providers. Engaging in the foundational aspects of home life is vital for personal and familial growth.
Healthy Relationship Standards for Women: Women are advised to recognize their worth in relationships. If a man is playing hard to get or suddenly becomes incapable of basic household tasks, women should feel empowered to enjoy their independence and freedom.
Workplaces
Fair Workplace Practices: Employers are encouraged to recognize the value of their employees by providing adequate compensation and supporting their quality of life. This approach ensures that employees can deliver quality work without being exploited.
Reevaluating Workplace Policies: Updating policies to better fit modern family structures and diverse caregiving needs.
Developing Comprehensive Benefits Programs: Crafting benefits that recognize and support various caregiving identities and stages, from child care to elder care.
Encouraging Employee Participation in Policy Design: Actively involving employees in shaping policies through resource groups and feedback mechanisms.
Recognizing and Valuing Paid Care Workers at Home: Ensuring fair treatment, clarity, and equitable compensation for domestic care workers.
Promoting Advocacy for Care Investments: Pushing for companies to engage in public-private partnerships and advocating for transformative care policies at a broader level.
Addressing Emotional, Knowledge, Time, and Financial Aspects of Caregiving: Supporting caregivers in various aspects to create a more inclusive and empathetic work environment.
And as we look to the future of care in 2024, we find that childcare is still a huge problem for working families. We know this because the job recovery in the childcare sector still lags.
Why Is Childcare Still A Problem In America?
As of December, there's a slight increase in child care service employees, reaching 1.023 million, but this number hasn't fully recovered to the pre-pandemic level of February 2020.
Despite a record number of working parents, the child care industry faces challenges. High demand doesn't equate to increased supply due to low margins and limited pricing flexibility. Additionally, the childcare sector struggles with slow hiring due to low wages and the depletion of pandemic-era funding. Remote work has somewhat mitigated this issue, allowing parents to manage child care more flexibly, sometimes at the expense of their wellbeing and other priorities. It’s also important to note that the recent increase in women's employment rates is largely among college-educated mothers, who are more likely to have the option of remote work.
Care Memo:
What Many Companies Still Get Wrong About Parental Leave: Follow this parental-leave specialist’s comprehensive 3-step strategy to transform your policies or risk losing top performers to companies that do better.
New York Could Be The First State To Offer Prenatal Paid Leave To Moms: New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday proposed offering pregnant women 40 hours of paid leave to attend prenatal medical appointments, which she said would make New York the first state in the U.S. to offer such benefits.
The proposal was part of a six-point plan to improve maternal and neonatal health at a time when U.S. maternal mortality rates are growing with each generation and the country has fallen way behind other developed nations.
The Role for Workplaces in Tackling the American Care Crisis: There are currently 11 million workers in the “sandwich generation,” providing care for both children and elderly parents, and one-fifth of all full-time workers are caring for aging, disabled, or ill loved ones. The value of supporting the work of caregiving has also become clear.
What family policies would experts like to see in 2024? Child tax credit, social media regulation, child care support and paid leave all make experts’ list.
Why Parents Struggle So Much In The World’s Richest Country: it shouldn’t be this hard.
Latest baby formula recall draws concerns from Congress and caregivers : It’s been two years since the start of a formula shortage launched a mad dash to keep babies across the country fed and investigations into the formula market. Now, another major recall of a specialty formula is sparking concerns and drawing questions from Congress.
I Feel Like I Have To Choose Between Starting A Family And Caring For My Parents: A deeply personal and emotional dillemma.
Facing Financial Ruin As Cost Soars For Elder Care: The United States have no coherent plan for providing long-term care.
How Shanghai Is Redefining Aging With In-Home Care: To cater to its aging population, the city has launched a pilot program to deliver in-house care services for the elderly.
The Care Gap is written by Blessing Adesiyan, Founder & CEO of MH WorkLife and Executive Director, Caring Africa where she is focused on building care infrastructure for women, workplaces, and economies. Follow @blessing.adesiyan @mhworklife @caringafrica for more.