Myth: Care work is low value

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we got a sense of how devalued care work really is. Care workers were, and still are, working long hours in poor conditions, for low pay, to support elders, children, and people with disabilities. These care workers provide some of the most essential labour in our society, but their work is often overlooked. We rarely stop to think about how much we rely on care, and how everything would fall apart without it. That neglect has consequences: care workers have been leaving the sector, and we’re now facing a global care crisis, with not nearly enough carers to support everyone who needs care. In this episode, we’ll be busting the myth that care work is low value, and talk about what it would look like if society recognized that our communities and economies are built on and sustained by care.

Further research:

Prentice, S. & Armstrong, P. (2021, May 25). We must eliminate profit-making from child care and elder care. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/we-must-eliminate-profit-making-from-child-care-and-elder-care-159407

Thomas, C., & Lightman, N. (2022). “Island Girls”: Caribbean Women Care Workers in Canada. Canadian Ethnic Studies 54(1), 29-58. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ces.2022.0004.

GATE’s Busted podcast is made possible by generous support from BMO.

Featured Guests:

Dr. Susan Prentice, Duff Roblin Professor of Government and Professor of Sociology, University of Manitoba

Dr. Carieta Thomas, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Carleton University

Produced by: Carmina Ravanera and Dr. Sonia Kang

Edited by: Ian Gormely