As part of the latest statistics in Quebec, experts estimate the contribution of women to home care at 130 million hours per year or about $5 billion in home care for the elderly. Women provide 80% of this care. But without a census, we will not know what will come of the situation in five years. The statistics we currently have are from the last census. They tell us that 80% of people who have an unrecognized, invisible job are women. That is a significant proportion.
What can we do as an organization? We are an organization dedicated to raising awareness, which is why we try to change the way people think, including the way politicians think. That is why we are here today.
This work is much more than doing laundry and cleaning. It has to do with providing care and medication, making appointments and learning the proper techniques to help people. That is well beyond what we used to call domestic labour. By discharging many people from hospitals, we force people who stay home to acquire knowledge that does not come naturally. That is why AFEAS does not use the neutral word “caregiver”, we specify the gender. Learning all those techniques does not actually come as naturally as we might think.