Reducing and Redistributing Women’s Unpaid Care Work in Livestock Systems of Rural Kenya and Ethiopia: Evidence from Quantitative Baseline Analysis

Women in smallholder livestock systems of Kenya and Ethiopia bear a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work, limiting their participation in productive and income-generating activities. This study presents baseline findings from the Scaling Innovations for Reduced and Redistributed Women’s Unpaid Care Work (I4RR) project in Kenya and Ethiopia. Using a quasi-experimental design, baseline data was collected from approximately 620 respondents, 306 from Kenya (160 women and 146 men) and 314 from Ethiopia (157 women and 157men). Findings show that women experience significant time poverty, spending up to six more hours per day than men on combined productive and care activities. Forage utilization practices, that in the hands of women, were largely labor intensive as most households relied on cut-and-carry systems, harvesting forage and transporting it to livestock. Moreover, women had lower levels of empowerment, with only about half meeting empowerment thresholds compared to men. Restrictive gender norms emerge as affecting women’s empowerment by limiting their mobility, decision-making, and access to resources. The results highlight the need for integrated socio-technical and gender-transformative interventions to reduce care burdens, enhance women’s agency, and improve participation in livestock value chains.