Adolescent girls: unpaid domestic and care work in Latin America and the Caribbean
Evidence and a framework for action
- Español
- English
Highlights
This joint publication by UNICEF and UN Women sheds light on a deeply overlooked reality: the unpaid domestic and care work assumed by adolescent girls in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Drawing on evidence from 16 countries, it demonstrates how this burden negatively affects their educational trajectories, emotional well-being, and autonomy—reproducing intergenerational and gender inequalities.
The document offers a comprehensive framework for action, articulating both specific and indirect interventions across seven key dimensions: services, money, time, training, legal frameworks, information, and cultural transformation. It also analyzes existing public policies and highlights promising practices that recognize adolescent girls as rights-holders and care providers. The publication puts forward concrete recommendations to redesign care systems with a generational, intersectional, and rights-based approach, positioning adolescent girls and young women as a strategic priority for equity, social development, and intergenerational justice in the region.
