During a hands-on session, youth researchers engaged in group work to apply data analysis techniques to real-world challenges. Through collaboration and peer learning, they strengthened their ability to generate research that informs gender-responsive policies and programming.

Dr. Linet Arisa, Venantius, and Kerryn join youth researchers for a group photo on the opening day of the ICRW Data Analysis Training Workshop in Nairobi. The workshop brings together young scholars working with real Kenyan datasets to deepen their skills in qualitative and quantitative analysis, advancing evidence-informed research on gender and development.

Despite progress made towards global gender equality, men continue to hold the highest paid positions in industries worldwide, while many women still typically handle grunt work across companies and supply chains.

Meanwhile, many women around the world are still struggling to find work, with many holding precarious jobs or forced to hustle in the informal economy just to get by.

Overall, women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, underlining United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ comments that global poverty “has a female face.”

“If the quantity and quality of employment are failing women, the impact is higher poverty risk,” said Sally Roever, formerly the international coordinator at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), a global network that aims to improve working conditions for women in the informal economy.

Labor experts say that the working world excludes, underpays, overlooks and exploits around half of its available force – and as such, work systems – in their current structures – are failing women.

I was simply seen as a girl fulfilling her expected duties. No one ever asked about my emotional well-being. Many young people have had to pause or abandon their education to care for a child or an ailing kin. Many have had to make the difficult trade-off between earning an income and caregiving responsibilities. Like many young Kenyans, especially girls, my journey into adulthood was marked by invisible labour. And that came at a cost. Today, as Kenya charts its path through the draft National Care Policy, it is time to examine care work through the lens of its youngest contributors and beneficiaries: Generation Z (13 to 28 years) who constitute up to 30 per cent of the population.

Young people, particularly adolescent girls, are frequently expected to take on unpaid care responsibilities in their households. This invisible labour often comes at the expense of their education, ambitions and well-being. The 2021 Kenya Time Use Survey revealed a stark reality: girls aged between 15 and 17 spend four times more time on unpaid care work than boys. That is not just inequality, it’s time theft.

Cooking, cleaning, childcare, and elder care, which keep households and society running, remain undervalued and invisible in economic policies.
In Kenya’s bustling markets, corporate offices, and rural farms, women who care for families, drive industries, and sustain communities are the backbone of the economy

• Kenyan women like 22-year-old Sylvia bear the double burden of unpaid care work and informal employment while receiving little support from their partners or society.
• The CARE policy aims to recognise, reduce, and redistribute unpaid care work, which remains undervalued and invisible in government policies.
• Despite societal expectations that reinforce traditional gender roles, some advocates are calling for men to take more responsibility in household duties and caregiving.