A/68/293 prevent violations of rights by private actors, 18 and the gendered division of labour in households is no exception in this regard. Inequality in these matters reflects and underlies many other aspects of discrimination against women 19 and therefore has much wider implications for women’s equality in society. 25. Given the intimate connection between the position of women in the private sphere and their exclusion from full enjoyment of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights, States must recognize the value and gendered impact of unpaid care work, and take appropriate action to ensure that its difficulty/intensity is lessened and its distribution shared more equally on both the societal and household levels. 20 The State has a strong role to play in this regard, for example by mobilizing resources and providing accessible affordable public services towards these ends. B. Impact of unpaid care on the enjoyment of a range of rights 26. Women, especially women living in poverty, face multiple, overlapping and variable obstacles to their enjoyment of rights due to care responsibilities they carry throughout their life cycle. Girls may be withdrawn from school or unable to achieve their full potential owing to care work in the home, restricting their future opportunities; during pregnancy or early childcare women are more likely to face employment loss or labour insecurity; while older women find themselves with lower levels of retirement savings because of caring responsibilities. These life-cycle risks have a profound effect on the enjoyment of their rights as well as on the inter-generational transmission of poverty. If women are unable to enjoy a particular human right on an equal basis with men, this is unequivocally a violation of the right in question. 27. It is hard to think of a human right that is not potentially affected in some way by the unequal distribution and difficulty of unpaid care work. In this section, the focus is on specific economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to participation, but this should not be interpreted as an exhaustive list. Excessive burdens of unpaid care work may threaten the enjoyment of other human rights by caregivers, such as freedoms of speech, association and assembly. Moreover, because unpaid care work is so time-consuming and arduous, especially for women living in poverty, women are often unable to enjoy their right to rest and leisure . 21 1. The right to work 28. The right to work is often a crucial enabling factor for dignity, personal development and social and economic inclusion. 22 The right to work signifies the right to paid work — “the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain his living by __________________ 18 19 20 21 22 8/24 Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 19. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 16. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 29, para. 18. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 24. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 18. 13-42271