WHO report reveals gender inequalities at the root of global crisis in health and care work

Drawing on the WHO report Fair share for health and care, this article argues that the global care crisis cannot be described simply as a shortage of nurses, caregivers, or public-health workers. Women make up roughly two-thirds of the paid global health and care workforce and perform more than three-quarters of unpaid care. Yet the more a task is treated as women’s natural vocation, the more readily it is underpaid, informalized, or excluded from economic measurement. Health systems depend on women’s work while wages, occupational segregation, and household responsibility undermine their economic security.

The report describes a self-reinforcing cycle. Underinvestment in public care transfers responsibility back to households; unequal divisions inside households then restrict women’s access to education, continuous employment, and leadership. Lower earnings and weaker social protection leave families still more dependent on women’s unpaid work. What policy often calls individual choice is therefore choice constrained by absent services, time pressure, and gender norms.

The feminist importance of these figures is not merely that they confirm women work harder. They change the unit of analysis. Care cannot be repaired through individual resilience, private negotiation, or praise for professional dedication. An equitable system must treat care as infrastructure: invest in public provision and social protection, improve pay and conditions, recognize unpaid work, and include care workers in institutional design. Otherwise, policies intended to raise women’s labor-force participation may simply add paid employment on top of an unchanged unpaid shift.

This is an institutional overview rather than a complete account of differences across countries, classes, races, migration statuses, and disability. It should be read alongside the full report and worker-led research. Its policy entry point is nevertheless clear: sustainability in health systems and gender equality are not separate goals. A care system maintained through women’s overwork may continue functioning for a time, but it is already producing the next cycle of attrition, poverty, and unmet need.