17/01/2026
📢 Feminist Voices – Amplifying Stories, Breaking the Silence
🌍 Erasmus+ Youth Exchange | Balanced households, building equality
During our Erasmus+ Youth Exchange, young people from different European countries came together to talk about an issue that often goes unnoticed, yet plays a huge role in gender equality: the unequal distribution of unpaid domestic and care work.
📊 The numbers speak for themselves
In Turkey, women carry out up to 3.5 times more unpaid work than men.
In Italy and Spain, the gender gap is still very present; in Spain, women do almost twice as much unpaid work as men.
In North Macedonia, over 60% of the inactive population are women, many of them due to family and household responsibilities.
Across Europe, according to EU and OECD data, women spend around two extra hours per day on unpaid work compared to men.
❗ Why does this matter?
Because unpaid work limits women’s participation in the labour market, reduces economic independence, and keeps traditional gender roles in place. Equality at home directly affects access to education, job opportunities, and social inclusion.
💡 What did we learn as young people?
That shared responsibility is not just about splitting tasks — it’s about changing mindsets. And that small, practical actions can lead to real change, such as:
- creating a weekly household task plan,
- rotating roles and responsibilities,
- recognising care work as a shared skill and duty,
- having open and honest conversations within families about fairness and equality.
🤝 Through non-formal education, intercultural dialogue, and the exchange of different national realities, this youth exchange helped strengthen young people’s awareness of their role as active agents of change — both at home and in society.
✨ Balanced households are the foundation of more equal societies.
