Unpaid care and the gender gap in Ireland
Caring for children, older relatives and people with disabilities, along with housework, is essential work. Most of it is unpaid, and women do much more of it than men. That leaves less time for paid work, and it helps to explain gaps in pay, progression and pensions.
Key facts
- Double: women spend on average twice as long as men on caring, and more than twice as long on housework, according to a 2019 report (ESRI and IHREC).
- 45% and 29%: the shares of women and men providing care for others every day (ESRI and IHREC).
- Third highest: Ireland’s rank in the then EU28 for weekly hours of unpaid work, for both men and women (ESRI and IHREC).
- 7.0% and 4.6%: the shares of women and men recorded as providing regular unpaid care in Census 2022 (CSO).
- 31% and 26%: the shares of female and male carers providing 43 hours or more of care a week in 2022 (CSO).
Why it matters
The difference isn’t only because some women work fewer paid hours. The ESRI and IHREC report found that a substantial gender gap remains even among men and women doing the same amount of paid work.
Unpaid care also has long-term effects. Time spent caring can mean lower earnings and fewer years building up a pension, as our posts on the motherhood penalty and the pension gap explain.
Where to find out more
- Caring and Unpaid Work in Ireland: the full ESRI and IHREC report
- Family Carers Ireland: support and advocacy for family carers
- National Women’s Council: Ireland’s national women’s membership organisation
- Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission: the State’s equality and human rights body
- European Institute for Gender Equality: the EU Gender Equality Index, with country comparisons
- CSO Women and Men in Ireland: official statistics on gender in Ireland
Figures checked October 2026. Each figure gives its year, and newer data may since have been published.