Care work, paid or unpaid, is mostly unsupported. For this to change, state institutions must themselves become caring
As we reflect on 2020, many tell us that it was a lost year, a year to forget. That’s not quite how we see things. What has been invaluable about the past 10 catastrophic months is that this pandemic has brought the issue of care to the very centre of public discussion. This very old word is newly fashionable, and with some unexpected twists.
We have always undervalued the work of care. Historically, most hands-on caring has been marginalised as women’s “unproductive” housework or, more recently, offloaded as underpaid work, largely shouldered by precarious, often immigrant workers. Sexism combines with racism to further devalue this vital work. Decades of welfare cuts followed by the savage austerity policies initiated in 2010 have produced a lack of adequate care provision now evident at every level in British life, from cradle to grave.
