Women’s disproportionate time burden
An unequal burden is often placed on women to manage childcare and household labor - globally, women perform approximately 76% of all unpaid care. This deeply restricts their entry to the workforce and availability for any income-generating activities. The lack of stable earnings intrudes on a woman’s savings capacity and engagement with financial services. The time burden also restricts mobility and flexibility, limiting women’s ability to interact with financial institutions, products and services.
44 Connected Barriers
Most Relevant Segments
- 01. Excluded, marginalized
- 02. Excluded, high potential
- 03. Included, underserved
- 04. Included, not underserved
Most Relevant Customer Journey Phases
- Phase 1: Account Ownership
- Phase 2: Basic Account Usage
- Phase 3: Active Account Usage
- Phase 4: Economic Empowerment
Key Evidence
Women’s unpaid care work is essential to the functioning of households and economies, yet it is not reflected in GDP. This labor, such as including cooking, cleaning, and caring for children or elderly family members, comes at a cost: it reduces women’s available time and represents a substantial, unrecognized contribution to economic activity.
- Globally, women perform approximately 76% of all unpaid care work and spend an average of 2.4 more hours per day on unpaid domestic and caregiving activities than men. In Asia and the Pacific, this number is closer to 80%. (ILO 2018 , UN Women 2024, World Bank 2024, Gugan, Stuward, and Subhashini 2024)
- Unpaid care work is estimated to generate $10 trillion annually - roughly 13% of global GDP - yet it is rarely counted in national accounts, rendering much of women’s economic contribution invisible. (ICRW 2023)
Care responsibilities do not diminish when women enter the workforce - they must be managed alongside paid work. As a result, women often adjust how, when, and how much they participate in the labor market, limiting their ability to enter, remain in, and progress within paid employment.
- Unpaid care work is the main barrier preventing women from getting into, remaining, and progressing in the labor force. In 2018, 606 million working age women said that they were not able to do so because of unpaid care work compared to 41 million men. (ILO 2018)
- Disproportionate time burdens constrain not only women’s entry into the workforce but also their performance once employed. Even when working, women spend significantly more time on unpaid care and household responsibilities than men, reducing productivity and competitiveness in the labor market. (IMF 2021)
Women’s time constraints shape how - and whether - they engage with financial systems. Unpaid care responsibilities limit women’s ability to travel, transact, participate in training, and consistently use financial services, while also influencing how providers perceive and serve them. As a result, financial inclusion efforts that do not account for time use and social roles risk overlooking both women’s demand for services and the design features needed to reach them effectively.
- Women’s time constraints - driven largely by unpaid care responsibilities - limit their ability to engage with financial services, including traveling to access providers, completing transactions, or participating in income-generating activities. Financial services that reduce time burdens, such as digital payments or more accessible delivery channels, can improve women’s ability to save and use financial tools. (CGAP 2021)
Interventions that have successfully addressed this barrier
The following Exemplar represents one evidence-based interventions that has shown success in addressing this particular barrier. There may be other Exemplars for this barrier in the larger Barriers & Exemplars Analysis compendium deck.
