In June 2024, the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) contracted PPMI to conduct the second wave of the pioneering CARE survey, focusing on gender gaps in unpaid care, individual and social activities. Prior to the first wave of the survey, EU data collection on unpaid care was limited in terms of gender sensitivity, timeliness, depth and comparability across Member States and over time. Up-to-date and comparable data on time use is crucial for understanding how women and men allocate their time differently, which is essential for setting policy priorities and developing effective gender equality policies. For this reason, this survey will aim to address existing data gaps on gender inequalities in care within the EU and enhance the capacity of EIGE's Gender Equality Index to capture changes in the revised domain of Time.
The survey will gather data on various aspects of unpaid childcare, including parental childcare, grandparenting and other forms of childcare beyond family care. It will also focus on informal long-term care provided to family members, relatives, neighbours or friends who require support due to mental or physical frailty, disability or old age. Additionally, the survey will explore work-life balance conflicts, sharing of care responsibilities within couples and access to formal care services. Moreover, it will cover housework activities, leisure activities and volunteering activities.
The 14-month project will be conducted in two main phases: the EU-wide data collection phase and the data analysis and presentation phase. In the first phase, PPMI will design and conduct an online panel survey to collect data from at least 60 000 respondents aged 16 to 74 across the EU, seeking to capture the most comprehensive perspectives on different life cycle situations. In the second phase, the team will analyse and present the data, producing 27 country and EU factsheets.
The data collected will inform new EU and national policy developments. At the same time, it will support the monitoring of the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025 and the European Care Strategy, both of which aim to close the gender care gap. Similarly, it will help track the political commitments outlined in the recent Council Recommendations on the new Barcelona targets for early childhood education and care, as well as on access to affordable, high-quality long-term care, adopted by the Council in December 2022.
