Unpaid Care Work and Adolescent Girls: Gendered Labour Systems and Early Economic Pathways

Unpaid care labor is a traditional but underestimated element of economies, and feminine implications are disproportionately placed on adolescent girls. This paper discusses the types and extent of unpaid care labour performed by teenage girls, gender labour regimes that inform and determine these tasks and the implications on early economic trajectories. Based on a mixed methodology, the research will combine some quantitative data on time utilization and education and early economic involvement with qualitative data on social norms, household decision-making, and institutional organization. The results indicate that paid care work is a daily, intensive aspect of the life of adolescent girls, which creates a high level of time poverty limiting schooling, skills acquisition, and participation in the labour market. Care does not simply get distributed but is structurally entrenched in gendered systems of labour that exist in the household, community and the institution. The systems make the roles of caregiving normal in girls but do not give them enough public or institutional support, and thus recreates early economic disadvantage.
The paper also proves that the cumulative and intergenerational consequences of care work in adolescence create pathways of school-to-work and direct girls towards more precarious economic or care-oriented career paths. Viewed through the prism of feminist economics, social reproduction theory, and the human capital theory, the results present the simultaneous maintenance of economic systems and the collapse in the economic potential of girls in the long term. The paper is relevant to the care economy scholarship in the sense that it preempts the portrayal of adolescence as an important life course phase in the reproduction of gendered inequality. The policy implications include the importance of care sensitive education systems, intensifying of social protection and specific interventions, which acknowledge, mitigate, and redistribute unpaid care work. Unpaid care in girls of adolescent age is a problem that needs attention in order to achieve gender equality and inclusive economic growth.

Unpaid work in childcare; Female adolescents; Gendered labour; Care economy; Early economic trajectories; Time poverty; Human capital; Social reproduction.

1. Ahmed, S. (2025). Invisible labour and economic exclusion of women and girls. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

2. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.16664 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

3. Camilletti, E. (2025). Child work in developing countries: Unpaid care and gendered labour dynamics. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

4. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00220388.2024.2434253 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

5. D’Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. (2024). Thinking beyond bias: Technology and gendered labour systems. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

6. https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.16207 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

7. Delbiso, T. D., et al. (2025). Reducing and redistributing women’s unpaid care work in East Africa: A synthesis of evidence. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397708056 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

9. Ferrant, G., et al. (2023). Social norms, unpaid care work, and gender inequality. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

10. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291122001413 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

11. ILO & UN Volunteers (2025). Volunteering, unpaid care work, and labour market participation. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

12. https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/57956-UNV-ILO-Publication-FINAL-v3-WEB.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

13. International Labour Organization (2024). Unpaid care work prevents women’s participation in the labour market. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

14. https://www.ilo.org/resource/news/unpaid-care-work-prevents-708-million-women-participating-labour-market [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

15. Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2025). Economic value of unpaid domestic and care work in Kenya. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

16. https://www.knbs.or.ke/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Economic-Value-of-Unpaid-Domestic-and-Care-Work-in-Kenya-2025.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

17. Kinyua, R., & Wanjiru, M. (2025). Care work and women’s economic outcomes in Kenya. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

18. https://journals.ku.ac.ke/index.php/KUWEE/article/view/594/278 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

19. Ministry of Gender, Kenya (2024). Kenya National Care Policy (Draft). [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

20. https://gender.go.ke/sites/default/files/publications/KENYA-NATIONAL-CARE-POLICY-FINAL-DRAFT-2024.doc [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

21. Mushro, A. (2025). From double to triple burden: Gender stratification in emerging labour systems. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

22. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07652 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

23. OECD (2025). Gender equality in a changing world: Life-course perspectives. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

24. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/gender-equality-in-a-changing-world_e808086f-en/full-report/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

25. OECD (2025). Persistent gender gaps in paid and unpaid work across the life course. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

26. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/gender-equality-in-a-changing-world_e808086f-en/full-report/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

27. Plan International (2024). Girls, unpaid care work, and early economic disadvantage. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

28. https://plan-international.org/uploads/2024/11/Out-of-Time_RCRL-Summary-Report_final_En.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

29. Plan International (2024). Out of time: The gendered care divide and its impact on girls’ lives. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

30. https://plan-international.org/uploads/2024/11/Out-of-Time_RCRL-Summary-Report_final_En.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

31. Population Council (2024). Beyond women: The urgent need to address adolescent girls in the care economy. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

32. https://popcouncil.org/insight/beyond-women-the-urgent-need-to-address-adolescent-girls-in-the-care-economy/ [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

33. Serrano-Pascual, A., et al. (2025). Young people as paid and unpaid care workers: A youth labour perspective. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

34. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2024.2446158 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

35. Sinha, A. (2024). Well-being costs of unpaid care work: Gendered evidence from care providers. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

36. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X23002371 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

37. UN Women (2023). Forecasting time spent in unpaid care and domestic work: Technical brief. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

38. https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2023-10/technical-brief-forecasting-time-spent-in-unpaid-care-and-domestic-work-en.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

39. UN Women (2024). Gender-responsive approaches to unpaid care and domestic work. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

40. https://africa.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/gender_responsive_unpaid_care_and_domestic_work_final.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

41. UNICEF (2025). Adolescent girls and unpaid domestic and care work in Latin America and the Caribbean. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

42. https://www.unicef.org/lac/media/52691/file/EN_Adolescent%20girls%20and%20unpaid%20domestic%20and%20care%20work_LAC_Aug25.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

43. UNICEF (2025). Policy framework on adolescent girls and unpaid care responsibilities. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

44. https://www.unicef.org/lac/media/52691/file/EN_Adolescent%20girls%20and%20unpaid%20domestic%20and%20care%20work_LAC_Aug25.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

45. United Nations (2025). Sustainable Development Goal 5: Recognising and valuing unpaid care work. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

46. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goal_5 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

47. WEE Community of Practice Kenya (2023). Unpaid care work in Kenya: Evidence and policy implications. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

48. https://weecopkenya.org/admin/cockpit/storage/uploads/2023/07/21/Technical-Brief--Unpaid-Care-1_uid_64ba252ab1493.pdf [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

49. Wood, A., et al. (2025). Gender and careers in platform-based labour markets. [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

50. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06778 [Google Scholar] [Crossref]

• Impact of Foreign Direct Investment in India
• Issues Involved in Digitalisation Special Reference to Indian Tourism Growth
• Relationship Marketing and Customer Loyalty in the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Industry in Nairobi County
• Financial Literacy or Financial Inclusion? Which is Which, What is What—To Achieve Uganda’s 10-Fold Economic Growth By 2040
• Harnessing Natural Gas for Economic Transformation: Overcoming the Regulatory and Infrastructural Bottlenecks in Nigeria