Target 5.4: Value unpaid care and domestic work
Recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate
Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
Why shareholder democracy is helpful
Recognizing and valuing unpaid care is largely a matter of public services, infrastructure and social protection. Employer policies on paid leave, scheduling and childcare, however, shape how care burdens fall on women. The ILO estimates 708 million women are outside the labor force because of unpaid care. Shareholders have engaged. United for Respect, faith investors and BMO Asset Management filed a 2021 Walmart proposal for a feasibility study on two weeks of paid sick leave and two weeks of family-care leave. The political-influence channel is real too. The Maine State Chamber of Commerce, Portland Regional Chamber and HospitalityMaine opposed Maine's 2023 paid family leave bill. Owners can move employer practice and lobbying, which helps at the margin. The public-service core requires governments.
How this was scoredHelpful
Helpful. Owners voting their values help. Others must carry most of it.
We have not yet written down the two answers behind this rating. Recording them on every item, so a reader can check the reasoning and not only the conclusion, is work in progress.
Every rating is the higher of two answers, one for what companies do and one for what they spend to stop the outcome, because the same vote reaches both. See the full method.
Sources
- Unpaid care work prevents 708 million women from participating in the labour market, International Labour Organization, 2024-10-29
- Walmart Inc.: Rule 14a-8 no-action request regarding paid sick leave feasibility proposal (United for Respect and co-filers), U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2021-02-01
- Business groups come out against paid family leave proposal, Portland Press Herald, 2023-05-23
Related subjects on other maps
How this rating was made
Every item on every one of our maps is read against one question: how far does this depend on the people who own companies voting their values? We answer it twice, once for what companies do and once for what they spend to stop the outcome, and take whichever answer is higher, since the same vote reaches both. The score carries its reasoning and its sources so that a reader can check it rather than take it.
- Pivotal. Owners voting their values can deliver most of the outcome.
- Necessary. Owners remove an obstacle nothing else removes, and others must also act.
- Helpful. Owners voting their values help, and others carry most of it.
- Independent. This moves without owners. Other levers carry it.
The advocacy record on this page holds only what a source we opened says happened. Where we searched and found nothing, the page says so rather than leaving a silence. Where a campaign names a filer the source does not name, it says that too. Ratings are ours; the list of subjects is UN Sustainable Development Goals's, and we link to their original.
How we score dependency, in full.