It is, perhaps, the biggest burning injustice of them all: the undervaluing of care work. Every day in this country there are more hours spent caring, in its many forms, than in any other activity.
In the private realm, mothers, and to a lesser extent fathers, are looking after young children in the home and sometimes elderly parents too. In the public economy, there are nurses in hospitals, staff in social care homes, teachers in kindergartens and child care workers in creches, together forming a workforce of many millions, and probably around 85 per cent female.
