Date: August 28, 2025
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:00pm (GMT+1)
Venue: Zoom Online (Register now)

Background

In Africa, women play a critical role in the formal and informal economy, with a high percentage performing care work, including housework, childcare, elder care, and health care. Such work, though necessary to the functioning of society, is typically underpaid, undervalued, and invisible (1). Although career work in the formal economy has become an increasingly appealing activity for women in recent years, care work remains predominantly a feminized sector and essential to family and community well-being. Women in sub-Saharan Africa, especially, spend significantly larger proportions of their time on unpaid care work compared to men. Women in sub-Saharan Africa spend much more time on unpaid care work than men, averaging 4.15 hours per day compared to men’s 1.25 hours (2). In the majority of Sub-Saharan Africa, the division of labor continues to place a significant burden on women to provide both reproductive and productive labor. Professional women, in their quest for professional careers, struggle to combine their career with care work chores. The double burden of care work and career tends to lead to time poverty, limited access to career advancement opportunities, and health effects on women. There is a need to address the gendered nature of care work and reflect on how women can be enabled to excel at career as well as care work. The Nkafu Policy Institute, think tank at the Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation, is organizing a webinar on the subject “Women’s Dual Burden: Navigating Careers and Care Responsibilities in Sub-Saharan Africa”. 

Objectives

The main objective of this webinar is to discuss the unique challenges women face in career and care work and how to empower them in both fields. Specifically, the webinar will:

• Provide a comprehensive overview of the primary challenges women face in balancing work, careers, and care responsibilities in SSA;
• Explore the part played by men and communities in changing society’s expectations and distributive responsibilities for care;
• Advocate for workplace practices that support women’s career participation without compromising caregiving roles;
• Discuss strategies and policy shifts to empower women in SSA through improved jobs, healthcare, and caregiving support.

Target audience

The event targets policymakers, women leaders, activists, civil society, international agencies, researchers, media, and employers advancing gender equality and economic empowerment.

Expected outcomes of the event

The event aims to achieve the following outcomes:

• Enhanced understanding of the societal and structural problems of women in managing career and care work in Sub Saharan Africa.
• Increased understanding regarding the need for an equal share of responsibility between women and men in care professions, necessitating deeper cultural and societal shifts in gender roles.
• Issued recommendations to improve the visibility of care work, ensure fair pay, promote worker-friendly policies, and support women’s equality.

Contact details

Email: [email protected]  / Tel: (+237) 654 86 72 54