Each year, women in the UK provide 23.2 billion hours of unpaid childcare worth around 2 382 billion, while men provide ,7 9.7 billion worth 160 160 billion, according to research by the thinktank Center for Progressive Policy. Calling unpaid work “one of the driving forces of gender-based inequalities in the workplace”, the CPP found that care responsibilities “disproportionately affect women and exacerbate inequality in the workplace”. The thinktank recommends increasing the amount of “free childcare” for three- to four-year-olds from 570 hours a year to 720 hours and extending the 15-hour-a-week allowance for disadvantaged two-year-olds to cover 48 weeks and after-school funding school and vacation. It also calls for a national target of 70% of job advertisements emphasizing flexibility by 2025 and a parental leave reform that offers paid leave for fathers and grandchildren. Campaigns have long argued that the current Common Parental Leave (SPL) policy is a “policy with many flaws and chronic failure” and needs to be replaced. A survey conducted for the What Women Want survey found that women do most unpaid adult care work, with one in five women reducing their hours and 830,000 unable to work entirely because they cared for an adult. A quarter of women had reduced their working hours to care for a child, while childcare prevented one in five women from working longer hours than they wanted to, the Yonder survey found in 2,002 people. One in five women caring for an adult had also reduced their paid hours. GraphicGraphic Calling for flexible work to become the first day right for workers, the CPP said 45% of women said they could work more with more flexibility. Increased flexible work could increase the wages of women caregivers by ,4 28.4 billion a year and add 60 60 billion a year to the UK economy. Access to childcare needed to be improved, work practices changed and unpaid work shared more equally if women were to have equal opportunities at work, said Dean Hochlaf, social policy expert at CPP. “The economic benefits for women and society at large could be enormous, giving women more control and choices in their professional lives and creating significant economic benefits that benefit everyone,” she said. It comes as the Coram Family and Childcare’s 21st annual childcare survey found that the cost of childcare for children under the age of two increased by 2.5% last year, with only 57% of local authorities reporting adequate childcare care for children under two years. A survey by Pregnant Then Screwed and Mumsnet last week found that two-thirds of respondents paid more or more for their childcare than for rent or mortgage. Labor MP Stella Crazy said women are being left out of the workforce. “This destabilizes our future financial security and drains talent from the economy,” he said. “We need the government to act and make balancing work and family life a reality for everyone, not just those who can afford it.” A government spokesman said: “We have invested more than δ 3.5 billion £ in each of the last three years to provide the government with free childcare offers, including 30 hours per week for working parents. We also invest millions in Family Hubs – where families can access important support services. “As we continue to look for ways to improve the cost, choice and availability of childcare and to further support working families, we have promoted flexible parental leave arrangements, including up to 52 weeks of maternity leave – one of the most generous rights in the world. . “
