This virtual hub is designed to seize this historic moment when issues of carework have been thrust into the limelight across the planet. During this critical period of COVID-19, the lives of individuals and entire societies have been upended as we confront a longstanding care crisis that presents unforeseen challenges as well as opportunities to envision better ways of organizing primarily feminized and family-based care. Globally, the crisis has forced us to recognize that the work of care – both unpaid caregiving by families and communities and the paid work of health care personnel, teachers, child care providers, long-term care workers, and others – is essential to all aspects of our existence. The pandemic has also brought into stark relief the many ways in which structural and systemic inequalities and discrimination are woven into the social organization of care.

This website is a project of the Carework Network, a twenty-year-old global and multidisciplinary organization of researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and advocates committed to cutting-edge research and policy work addressing paid and unpaid care. The goals of this virtual hub are to participate in and help shape the public dialogue around care; to create awareness of challenges, social policy, and best practices across care arenas; to extend access to the large body of existing feminist research related to care and its intersections with inequalities; to facilitate research collaborations; and to inform activism related to paid and unpaid care.