“We divide ourselves in two. We leave part at work and part at home.” Woman civil aviation worker, Senegal1
This perspective from a woman civil aviation worker exposes the ‘double burden’ women face of carrying out unpaid care work at home on top of paid employment. This heavy burden affects choices about work and contributes to a poor work-life balance and increasing pressure on women.
In 2023, worldwide, 748 million people aged 15 and above were outside the labour force due to care responsibilities. Shockingly, 708 million of these workers are women. And with women making up less than 25% of the global transport workforce, factoring in caring responsibilities is vital in ensuring decent and secure jobs for women workers – and unlocking their crucial participation in the transport workforce.
Through unionisation and negotiation of effective workplace policies that allow the integration of family and caring responsibilities for all workers, ITF unions can help shape an industry that is gender responsive.
The ITF wants employers and governments to recognise women’s unequal and disproportionate share of caring responsibilities, and to provide workplace measures and other caring rights and policies as part of promoting women’s employment and retention in the transport industry.
Key areas of concern
According to the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report 20252, women carry an unfair, disproportionate burden of unpaid domestic care work, spending 2.5 times as many hours a day on domestic and care work as men.
Those facing this ‘double burden’ have a greater need for flexible working hours. But the way that work is planned in the transport industry – including awkward shift patterns and long periods away from home – does not always recognise the disproportionate care burden faced by women.
Options for part time work across the transport sector are also limited, particularly for better paid positions such as drivers, where flexibility in working hours is routinely unavailable – and women in precarious transport work face greater difficulty in negotiating better working hours to deal with family responsibilities. Digital platforms in the transport gig economy stress flexibility for those with caring responsibilities. However, perceived flexibility that accommodates the reality of care must not come at the cost of decent work that is sorely lacking in the gig economy.
When it comes to maternity rights, women may not have access to maternity leave with cash benefits, and during pregnancy and when returning to work they can face exclusionary measures and victimisation – including degraded working conditions, alternative job duties imposed without consultation, more precarious contracts, lower wages or even outright job loss.
Inadequate or non-existent caring measures in the workplace to allow women to reconcile work and caring responsibilities can impact pay and pension – for example, from not be able to access higher-paying shifts – equal access to training, and retention and progression.
This reinforces the systemic exclusion of women from the industry – and is further exacerbated by the fact that caring responsibilities are often seen as a women’s issue, with the resulting absence of paternity and parental leave rights.
Care work at the bargaining table
This International Women’s Day, the ITF is spotlighting the role of our affiliate unions in bringing the issues of care work to the bargaining table.
This includes work throughout 2024 and 2025 by ITF women representatives in Africa working with the Kenya Hotels and Allied Workers’ Union (KHAWU) and the Kenya National Coordinating Committee: they successfully negotiated and signed a series of collective bargaining agreements supporting gender equality with key tourism companies, covering 3,000 women working as hotel workers and drivers. Key wins included provisions for extended maternity leave, stillbirth leave, and protected pumping and breastfeeding time during working hours.
A gender-responsive industry that cares for its workers
Collectively addressing the issues of care at work helps to deliver the objective of a gender-responsive transport industry that cares for its workers.
This means that:
- Governments need to ratify and effectively implement ILO Conventions 111 (Discrimination in Employment and Occupation) and 156 (Workers with Family Responsibilities)
- Governments need to enact legislation and gendered public policies that target the root causes of discrimination and ensure women’s right to paid work, safety, dignity and respect – including protection from pregnancy discrimination and access to paid leave for childcare and caring
- Governments need to invest in a public care service and the creation of decent care jobs as a central mechanism for promoting women’s economic empowerment
- Unions and employers need to negotiate effective workplace policies and facilities – such as:
> Paid maternity and paternity rights and leave, and protections for pregnant women and those who have given birth
> Protection of terms and conditions for women returning to work after maternity leave and policies to ensure fair re-entry to the workforce
> Working hours and shift patterns that accommodate caring responsibilities, and improved parental leave
> Childcare facilities, in particular at anti-social times, and facilities for nursing mothers
> Ensuring career progression is decided through a transparent process that does not discriminate against workers who have primary or sole caring responsibilities
1. ITF report – ‘The Gender Divide in Transport: Understanding the Barriers and Impacts for Women’s Exclusion from Decent Jobs in Ghana and Senegal’, December 2025
2. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025, United Nations
