Barcelona Metropolis

In our lives, we have to juggle two different kinds of time: the productive system’s clock time and the time we devote to caring for ourselves and others. Clock time is measurable, linear and convertible into money. Care time is something else entirely – governed by biological rhythms, it is unpredictable, fragmented and flexible.

Caring encompasses material, relational, and political dimensions, all of which influence the allocation of care time. The material dimension includes tangible, measurable tasks, and it’s straightforward to tell whether they’ve been completed and when they begin and end. The relational dimension refers to the bonds that form through care, touching on moral, emotional and ethical considerations: caring means listening to others, understanding their needs and engaging emotionally. The political dimension concerns the unequal distribution of care, in terms of gender, social class, age or status.

Quantifying the time we spend caring (as time-use surveys or staffing ratios attempt to do) fails to reflect this complexity, particularly the relational and political elements. We also need to consider the settings or institutional frameworks in which care takes place, as these shape how it is organised. For this reason, this article distinguishes between time spent caring within families and time spent in formal care services.

The logic of productivity leaves little space for the unpredictability of human life and its care needs. In the family context, this gives rise to the challenge of reconciling paid work with caregiving responsibilities – a balancing act that is far from simple as care demands are increasing significantly, driven by rising longevity and more intensive parenting. Yet families often lack the time and resources to meet these needs – due to women’s strong participation in the labour market, limited male involvement and the weakness of public care policies. These contradictions also play out in the professional care sector, where a ‘stopwatch logic’ often prevails – driven more by the organisational demands of the services than by the actual needs of the people receiving care.

In academic literature, the term care crisis is used to describe the tension between productive and reproductive logics – between capital and life. It also highlights the social and gender injustices underpinning the way care is organised in society. Care needs are met at the expense of the social appropriation of women’s labour – whether through unpaid work within families or, in the context of paid employment, through the extreme subordination of working-class women, especially migrant women.

Time to care within families

Italian feminists – pioneers in drawing attention to the time spent on care – noted that “time traps women”, since gender inequality has its roots in the unequal division of labour within the home. Discussions on the data tend to swing between two opposing views: one pointing to a narrowing gender gap (the theory of gender convergence) and the other emphasising persistent inequalities (the theory of the stalled revolution). Although this may seem contradictory, both are true: while the difference in time men and women spend on household and family care is gradually shrinking, inequalities remain – and it is women who continue to shoulder the greater burden.

Looking at the European context, several trends emerge: 1) Time spent on housework is falling, but the same cannot be said for care work. 2) The decline in housework is largely due to women doing less of it or outsourcing it – not because men are doing more. 3) The gender gap in care increases with age but starts to narrow again after the age of 65. 4) It’s important to distinguish between caring for children and caring for older or dependent people, as they affect the division of care work in different ways.

Surveys in Spain suggest that the ideal family model is one in which both parents are in employment and share domestic and care duties. But in reality, the scales still tip towards women, and the illusion of equality often disappears with the arrival of children – as motherhood clearly puts women at a disadvantage. Although fathers are becoming more involved in childcare, research shows this hasn’t led to a corresponding drop in the amount of time mothers spend on it – as one might expect. This is because a shared parenting approach often prevails: in households where fathers are highly involved, mothers tend to be too. So, it is the overall family dynamic, rather than a strict division of tasks, that tends to determine how care is shared. Gender gaps in caregiving are even more pronounced in families with lower incomes and lower levels of education.

When it comes to caring for older people, most family carers are women. However, men have been gradually taking on more of this responsibility, as shown by data from Spanish surveys. In 2004, women accounted for 86.6% of carers (compared to 16.4% of men), but by 2022, the share had shifted to 65% women and 35% men.¹

Figures from Barcelona in 2018 show a similar trend (69.3% women, 30.7% men), and also reveal that male involvement increases with age – men over 80 make up as much as 52% of family carers.² Caring for someone with a high level of dependency can be all-consuming, stressful and overwhelming – especially when it goes on for years and external support is limited. I remember a comment made by a woman caring for her mother: “The pandemic didn’t change anything for me – I was already living in lockdown”. The number of hours and sheer effort involved in these situations would be unacceptable in a paid work context. You could say that time seems to vanish, as care fills every moment.

The intensity of care depends on the support available – whether from family, the community or public institutions. Public policies provide leave and career breaks for caregiving, primarily focused on maternity and early childhood. In cases of dependency, financial support and care services are available, offering assistance but falling short of fully meeting the demands of family caregiving.

All of this requires the involvement of extended family (grandparents for children, various relatives for elderly care), or the hiring of carers, many of whom are now from abroad. Lastly, it’s important to highlight the challenges faced by the so-called “sandwich generation” – those caring for both children and elderly relatives, while also managing work commitments. Managing time and coordinating the various resources is a real juggling act.

Time for care in services

Care work can be summed up as a lot of effort and little pay. There are several factors that shape this reality. Care is given through the carer’s own body, to the bodies of others, meaning physical presence is required – you must be in the same space at the same time. This means care can’t be relocated or easily made more productive, as assigning a carer to more people risks compromising the quality of care. This is why caregiving is costly, but the burden is borne by both workers and those receiving care. The result is either low wages and high costs, or poor-quality care, or often a combination of both.

In care services, “clock time” is ubiquitous, as the current model prioritises organisational demands over the individual needs of those receiving care. A clear example of this is in care homes for the elderly, where the clash between clock time and care time plays out daily, putting strain on the quality of care. The private sector dominates (with only 14.2% of care homes in Spain being publicly run), and more specifically, the presence of large multinational companies and investment funds driven by profit, adds significant pressure on care workers.

In many care homes, the approach to care can be likened to an assembly line, where every task is rigidly timed. This stands in contrast to the more personalised, compassionate care that respects a person’s biological rhythms and preferences. The lack of time is something care workers often emphasise. “We treat people like products”, one geriatric caregiver lamented. “Assembly line work” is one of the most common ways to describe the series of tasks these workers have to complete quickly and without getting sidetracked. It’s impossible to provide proper care when the lack of time prevents workers from truly attending to the needs of individuals. In care services, the economic and political factors clearly shape both the timing and quality of care.

We need time for care just as much as we need time to earn a living. As feminist activism has long pointed out, without care, there is no life. And we would add that without the right conditions and enough time for care, we cannot enjoy well-being.

References

Borràs, V., Ajenjo, M. and Moreno-Colom, S. “More time parenting in Spain: a possible change towards gender equality?”. Journal of Family Studies. 2018.

Julià, A. and Escapa, S. “Mares sobrecarregades. Factors que causen més dedicació de les mares en el treball domèstic”. Papers, 99(2), 235-259. 2014.

Legarreta-Iza, M., Sagastizabal, M. and Comas-d’Argemir, D. “El tiempo desapareció. Impacto de la covid-19 en el trabajo en residencias para personas mayores y dependientes desde una perspectiva temporal”. Revista Internacional de Sociología, 83(2). 2025.