COVID-19 has exposed a crisis in Australia’s systems of social care, for the elderly, for children and for people with disabilities.

At the same time, women have been disproportionately affected by the loss of jobs and hours of work as the most severe recession in a century has had an immediate impact on many jobs in the services sector, a not inconsiderable number of which are unlikely to return.

Despite this, government policies in response to the pandemic and associated recession so far have overwhelmingly favoured male-dominated industries such as construction and manufacturing, displaying a traditional bias to investment in hard infrastructure and the jobs that create tradable goods, over social infrastructure and the growing number of jobs that provide services.

This paper argues for a significant government investment in the care economy, to create jobs for women, to improve the pay and conditions of essential care workers already in the system, and to improve the quality, affordability and accessibility of care for all Australians.

The paper also outlines the structural failings within Australia’s systems of social care, and examines why care work remains undervalued and underpaid. It links the systemic failure to value care work with the devastating outcomes in aged care revealed through the recent COVID-19 crisis, and argues for a rebalancing of economic values to ensure that reproductive labour is adequately recognised and rewarded.