On average, women perform 17 hours of unpaid care work per week.

Omissions

• The MEP did not cite any source for the 17-hour figure, making independent verification difficult.
• The definition of 'unpaid care work' (unbezahlte Sorgearbeit) is ambiguous: it is unclear whether this includes only direct care for children, elderly, and dependent persons, or whether it also encompasses broader domestic work such as cooking, cleaning, and household management. Eurostat and EIGE typically distinguish between 'care work' and 'domestic work', which would yield different figures.
• The time period is not specified, making it impossible to determine whether the figure refers to the 2010 HETUS wave, the 2020–2022 wave, or another data source. Different waves produce different results.
• Two independent sources or one primary source confirming the specific 17-hour figure could not be found.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostat – Time spent providing unpaid care work by sex and age groupThis Eurostat dataset (TUS_20NPAYCAREW) measures unpaid care work by sex and age group using the Harmonised European Time Use Survey (HETUS). However, the specific average hours per week for women across the EU were not accessible from the search results and could not be confirmed.
• PrimaryEIGE – Gender Equality Index 2025, Time domainThe EIGE Gender Equality Index 2025 Time domain measures gender inequalities in time spent on unpaid care, domestic work, and social activities. The page confirms that women still spend considerably more time on unpaid care and domestic work than men, but the specific average weekly hours for women across the EU were not accessible from the search results and could not be extracted.