Abstract

Unpaid care work is at the center of household, community, and labour market sustainability, yet it remains minimally recognized in conventional economic measurement and social protection design, including gross domestic product, employment statistics, and labour force surveys. This paper examines the gendered distribution of unpaid care work, time use, and social protection in Nigeria, drawing policy best practices from Sweden and the United Kingdom. Using a desk review method, the paper analyses peer-reviewed journals, Nigerian legal instruments, organizational reports, and secondary time-use data, including the Nigeria Time Use Survey 2024. It is anchored in Feminist Political Economy and Social Reproduction Theory and applies the Harvard Analytical Framework and the International Labour Organization’s 5R framework— recognize, reduce, redistribute, reward, and represent—as analytical tools. The paper argues that women’s disproportionate responsibility for domestic work, childcare, eldercare, subsistence production, and informal economic activity fosters time poverty and impedes access to income, education, social protection, and economic security. The comparative discussion demonstrates that more institutionalized care systems in Sweden and the United Kingdom have expanded public support through childcare, parental leave, and social protection, but have not eliminated gender inequalities in unpaid care. The paper recommends care-responsive social protection, investment in childcare and eldercare infrastructure, gender-transformative social norms, regular time-use surveys, and stronger recognition of unpaid care in Nigerian policy and economic planning.