If care is fair, the future is ours: the views and demands of adolescents and young people
Caregiving should not mean giving up our rights
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The meaningful participation of young and adolescent girls and young women has been at the heart of the process leading up to the XVI Regional Conference on Womenin Latin America and the Caribbean. They exercised their right to express their views on matters that affect their lives, especially in relation to the social organization of care, reinforcing the progress made in 2022 and including the views, experiences and proposals of even more young people from different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Between May and June 2025, a broad regional consultation took place. It combined a U-Report survey in which 56,060 adolescents and young people participated with national and subregional dialogues involving 104 girls from 18 countries. The consultation's wide reach and the diversity of its participants promoted a deep, collective reflection on care work and its impacts, and produced an agenda for the transformation of care in the region built on the experiences and views of young people.
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The voices of adolescent girls and young women in the region
Here are some of the views expressed by adolescent girls and young women from Latin America and the Caribbean during the regional consultation.
How does the unequal division of care work affect adolescent girls and young women in Latin America and the Caribbean?
As adolescent girls and young women from different parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, we believe life would not be possible without caregiving. Tasks such as cooking, cleaning, caring for children, older or disabled people, and tidying the house all sustain daily life. Without this care, no one would be able to study, work or progress. However, we are also aware that these all-important tasks almost always fall to us and the women around us.
Often, they are taken for granted, as if they were 'natural' for women. But they are not: they are work. Work that is not paid, not recognized and often deprives us of the time we would have had to play, study, rest or simply enjoy our childhood and adolescence. People talk about the double day, in which women work outside the home and, when they return, have to continue working in the home.
However, there is also the triple day, in which they get involved insocial organizations, their neighbourhoods or their communities as well. We know women like this, including some of us too, who study, care and support our communities. All of this is tiring and stressful, and hardly anyone sees it.
We also believe that care work is often confused with love. It is assumed that, if we care, we do it "out of love", but this sacrificial love leaves us exhausted, frustrated and with no time for ourselves. We no longer want to believe that to love is to stop dreaming. We also want to have dreams and fight for them.
We want a life where we can play, rest and choose what we do with our time; in which caring does not mean not being ourselves.
We take care of everyone, and who takes care of us?
We urgently need to talk about it. Care tasks should not just be a woman's responsibility. We need more empathy and a fairer division of tasks within the home. We need our schools to teach us that these tasks are everyone's responsibility. And we need the State to play its part.
Governments, international organizations, employers, teachers, mothers and fathers: we ask you to listen to our voices, take our demands seriously, and act. Because caregiving should not mean giving up our rights or our dreams.
The perception of equity regarding the division of household tasks changes with age: while the majority of adolescents (80 per cent) believe that these responsibilities are shared equally between women and men, their perception changes significantly as they age. One in two 20–24 year olds (50 per cent) believe that girls and women shoulder a greater burden.
U-Report, July 2025
DEMANDS OF ADOLESCENT GIRLS
To achieve this, we are calling for:
1. The creation of a comprehensive, rights-based, public care system, which involves key ministries and guarantees accessible, holistic and quality services for all caregivers.
2. The implementation of employment policies that recognize all forms of child-rearing and caregiving and promote the joint responsibility of States, employers, communities and families.
3. The provision of welfare and opportunities for adolescent mothers, including comprehensive support networks that guarantee educational continuity for adolescent girls and their access to comprehensive health care.
4. The provision of education on equality through training programmes in all parts of the country that promote joint responsibility and alter gender stereotypes from childhood onwards.
5. The real and effective political participation of adolescent girls in all decision-making spaces, especially those related to care work and community participation.
More information
If care is fair, the future is ours: Perceptions and demands of adolescent girls in Latin America and the Caribbean regarding care, within the framework of the XVI Regional Conference on Women
Adolescent girls: unpaid domestic and care work in Latin America and the Caribbean. Evidence and a framework for action
