Sociologist Mignon Duffy Specializes in Careworkers
Image by Meghan Moore
11/06/2018
By Katharine Webster
Assoc. Prof. Mignon Duffy researches the often-invisible armies of careworkers who tend to children and the elderly, the sick and the disabled.
Now she鈥檚 helping to guide international policy on families 鈥� specifically, the social services that support them 鈥� as part of a committee of experts advising the .听
It鈥檚 a dream come true for Duffy, chairwoman of the Sociology Department and an associate of the university鈥檚 Center for Women and Work. She is working on policy recommendations and a report for U.N. Women with fellow committee members who have expertise in social protections, human rights, the informal care sector and countries with little or no social service infrastructure.
鈥淚t鈥檚 the most fascinating thing I鈥檝e ever done. This is exactly what I鈥檝e always wanted to do 鈥� to be in the room for these high-level conversations about policy,鈥� she says. 鈥淢y role is to make sure that as the committee considers these social and public services, they are cognizant of the human beings who provide the services, not just the residents or citizens receiving them.鈥�
The majority of both paid and unpaid careworkers are women, making their working conditions and wages 鈥� or lack of pay 鈥� a women鈥檚 rights issue, Duffy says.听
In industrialized countries where women are close to half of the workforce, they comprise 80 to 90 percent of paid careworkers. Even in countries where women are only 10 percent of the paid work force, they are generally half of all careworkers, she says.
鈥淓very care sector in every country is predominantly women, and carework jobs generally pay less than other jobs requiring the same level of education and experience,鈥� Duffy says. 鈥淭he quality of carework jobs and wages really matters for women鈥檚 equity and economic well-being. And where there is less good-quality paid carework available, the burden of unpaid care falls more heavily on women.鈥�
Image by Tory Wesnofske
The 15 members of the U.N. Women experts鈥� committee met on Long Island for three days of intensive discussions about the role governments can and should play in providing care.
鈥淲e鈥檙e working on recommendations that are pushing the envelope, but also relevant to countries across a wide range of contexts,鈥� Duffy says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e wrangling with how to hold governments accountable 鈥� and to advance, not work against, gender equity.鈥�
A key area of agreement is that governments play a vital role in funding and regulating social services, Duffy says. A strong public sector results in better services, compared to private, for-profit care, she says.听
鈥淭he profit motive doesn鈥檛 serve the quality of care,鈥� she says. 鈥淟ow wages and poor working conditions lead to higher turnover, and the quality of care suffers.鈥�
Image by Meghan Moore
鈥淚n a lot of countries, careworkers, even paid careworkers, are excluded from the formal economy,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ecause of that, the careworkers who are providing these vital social services often don鈥檛 qualify to receive them. They鈥檙e excluded from social protections and access to services for themselves and their own families. That鈥檚 not a sustainable model.鈥�
The work of the expert research group will culminate in a report that will be made available to all U.N. member countries before the 63rd convening of the U.N. Commission on Women in March. Duffy is also co-writing a paper commissioned by U.N. Women that will compare carework in 47 different countries.
Duffy says it鈥檚 been fascinating to learn about how multilateral organizations like the United Nations arrive at policies. She has also learned a lot from the other experts on the committee that will inform her teaching, especially the Social Welfare Policy class that she teaches.听
