By Anam Parvez Butt, Oxfam's Gender justice Research Lead

Last month, as world leaders and business attended the annual World Economic Forum in Switzerland to discuss a global economy for all, Oxfam released its latest inequality report Time to Care, highlighting how women are the ones propping it up with unpaid and underpaid care work.

Our research revealed that globally, women and girls put in 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work every single day and countless more for poverty wages. Whether looking after children, elderly relatives, cooking and collecting water or firewood, it’s women who do more than three-quarters of all unpaid care work and make up two thirds of the paid care workforce.

This work is critical, we have all either needed care at some point in our lives or will need to be cared for in the future. Care keeps societies and economies healthy, productive and makes all other work possible. The contribution of unpaid care to the global economy amounts to at least $10.8 trillion a year, which is a figure more than three times the size of the global tech industry. Yet governments and business are not valuing this work, with spending on care viewed as a cost rather than an investment.

In the last decade, the number of billionaires in the world has doubled, with the 22 richest men in the world now having more wealth than all 325 million women in Africa. At the same time, almost half the world’s population is trying to survive on $5.50 a day or less and the rate of poverty reduction has halved since 2013. Extreme inequality is trapping millions of people in poverty around the world

The argument that care is a cultural problem and has nothing to do with government and business is simply untrue; the inequality crisis is being exacerbated by governments around the world. By massively under-taxing the wealthiest individuals and corporations and failing to crack down on tax loopholes, vital revenue to invest in national care systems and public services that could help reduce women and girls’ workload is lost. Investments in water and sanitation, electricity, childcare and public healthcare would free up women’s time and improve their quality of life whilst also lifting millions of people out of poverty.

Women and girls living in poverty spend significantly more time on unpaid care work than those from wealthier families. In rural areas and the poorest urban slums, where access to basic services is sorely lacking, women must travel long distances to collect fuel and water. Oxfam’s research found that providing access to an improved water source could save women in parts of Zimbabwe up to four hours of work a day, or two months a year.

A fairer economy is urgently needed, one where business and government recognise the value of and shoulder equal responsibility for care work, without relying on women and girls to fill in the gaps.