On a global scale, 2020 has been an exceptional year, the likes of which we have never experienced before, due to the emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the context of this health and social emergency, what has become patently clear is the enormous importance of care work in all spheres, the efforts made on a daily basis and the great invisibility that normally accompanies these tasks. Even though as a society we try to hide it, vulnerability is an inherent and constant characteristic of human life. If we do not take care of others or they do not take care of us throughout our lives, we cannot guarantee the basic conditions for a full and dignified life and sometimes even just our survival.

Over the last few months we have seen just how essential care work and caring for people is, the variety of professions it involves, from the healthcare sector to social work and domestic work, and how feminised, little recognised and underpaid this kind of work is.

The economic crisis of 2008 led to major cuts in social protection systems and health, education and social assistance services, resulting in an increase in the overall workload of women, which included both remunerated work and care work, and a deterioration in their living conditions. The Covid-19 emergency, which we will have to live with for an as yet unknown period of time, and the scenario it presents us with, may have an even greater impact on widening gender inequalities, particularly for women in irregular situations or without a formal contract.

Under the slogan “Women sustain the world”, the feminist movement on a global scale has for years been highlighting the great contradictions in the liberal, capitalist economic system: the divisions between the so-called productive economy and all the tasks that are essential for sustaining human life that continue to be invisible and unpaid, and the great injustice of all the responsibility for care work falling on women’s shoulders.

In the city of Barcelona, there is a long tradition of municipal policies aimed at establishing care-related public services that should be highlighted. However, we need to go further, moving towards a new form of social and economic organisation that enables us to care better, improve welfare and build a fairer future for everyone, whether they are beneficiaries or providers of care. To meet this goal we need to make major changes in multiple areas. Among many other issues, we need to raise the visibility and give much greater value to the importance of care work; recognise and give support to the people who carry out care work, be it paid or within the domestic sphere, transform companies in order to improve the work-life balance of families, or promote neighbourhood and community strategies that support care work and ensure it is assumed collectively.

“24 hours a day, 365 days a year – Let’s democratise care work”
In this context, Barcelona City Council is announcing the 35th edition of the 8 March Award – Maria Aurèlia Capmany, in order to support projects that help to promote recognition of the social centrality of care work, through actions that highlight the social and symbolic value of care work, improve the conditions in which care takes place, either in a paid or domestic context, and projects that advance the socialisation of care work outside the domestic sphere, promoting new models and imaginaries around this social phenomenon, or which promote better coexistence between paid work and care responsibilities.

Terms and conditions for taking part
Projects must be new or at an initial stage, include an intersectional gender perspective and take place in the city of Barcelona.

Projects may be submitted by natural persons, groups, associations or other non-profit organisations whose registered residence or head office is in Barcelona. For groups without legal personality and which are made up only of natural persons, the group’s representative will have to be registered with Barcelona’s municipal citizens register.

The deadline for submitting projects is 17 March 2021.

You will find full information on this link.