Editor’s Note: For the 2025 Wedu Women’s Leadership Awards, we spotlight women who lead in their work with caregiving. In South and Southeast Asia, the labor of caregiving—whether in homes, communities, or informal networks—remains largely invisible and deeply undervalued.  In this piece, guest writer Vanessa Hongathavij, and Research Manager at Love Frankie explores why it’s time to recognise caregiving not just as essential work, but as powerful, feminist leadership—and what shifts when we do.

Care giving, the quiet leadership in everyday life

Caregiving remains deeply undervalued across South and Southeast Asia.  National policy agendas in the region often overlook the essential role of parenting and care work. In countries like Thailand public investment in care-related sectors such as early childhood development, elder care, and domestic work remains strikingly low. Yet it is the steady, often invisible labor of caregivers—parents, extended family members, domestic workers, and community-based daycare providers—that sustains households, weaves the fabric of society, and shapes the future of entire generations.

“Who children become, both as individuals and as members of society, owes much to the quiet, unseen work of those who care for them.”

Who children become, both as individuals and as members of society, owes much to the quiet, unseen work of those who care for them. While this truth is increasingly documented and understood, it is important to reemphasize that women disproportionately shoulder these caregiving roles and responsibilities. This is largely the result of entrenched gender norms, structural inequalities in the labor market, and the systemic devaluation of care work. That devaluation is reflected in glaring policy gaps around caregiver support.

How do we bridge this contradiction: the lack of public and political attention toward parenting and caregiving, despite its profound impact on the developmental outcomes that our societies and governments claim to value most?

In my work at Love Frankie, a communications agency based in Bangkok focused on social impact across the Asia-Pacific, we grapple with this paradox. Through research, campaigns, and advocacy, we aim to support more equitable and gender-responsive approaches to parenting and caregiving that are grounded in evidence and shaped by the realities of those who provide care.

We have observed that caregivers are often overlooked in social campaigns, typically lumped into the broad category of “general public.” But what happens when we center and activate this group as leaders in their own right? What becomes possible when we value caregiving as a form of social and cultural leadership, and not just valuable labor?

“What becomes possible when we value caregiving as a form of social and cultural leadership, and not just valuable labor?”

 

Caregivers as powerful change-makers

This activation means that we recognise many caregivers are already acting as community-level change agents. From our research, these documented voices include those such a mother from the Greater Bangkok region who is committed to raising her children equally. She teaches her daughter and son to see beyond a binary of women and men, and to question societal gender norms with critical thinking. She encourages them to consider the diverse and complex needs of people they interact with, including persons with different abilities and genders.

We also create space for new generational voices to be heard, such as a young mother in Bangkok who parents her one-year-old child with her partner as a co-parental unit. They share all caregiving and household responsibilities equally. Recognising that their child may identify with a different gender in the future, they use gender-neutral terms and practices to honor their child’s freedom and self-expression.

In amplifying parental voices, we also make space for male caregivers and male allies in our communications, programming, and advocacy work. One father from southern Thailand recalls growing up in a household where women were expected to take on all domestic duties. As an adult, he developed a deeper gender consciousness and made a promise to raise his son to participate equally in household chores, believing that equality in the home must be the norm for everyone, regardless of gender.

“By amplifying that caregivers are leaders in their households through the choices they make, we challenge the narrative that caregiving roles are too bound by tradition for policy reform.”

By amplifying these voices in the campaigns we develop and the messages we share, we acknowledge that parents are leaders in their households through the choices they make about caregiving. This recognition challenges the narrative that caregiving roles in Thailand remain unchanged or too bound by tradition for policy reform to make a difference—a perspective that often fuels policy inaction and deprioritisation.

While we must navigate serious challenges and unjust norms in our work, the conversations and interviews we conduct show that examples of parental leadership are indeed powerful. These stories of positive parenting resonate with other parents and caregivers, especially when shared and amplified through platforms such as social media and public campaigns.

Caregiving is not just a private duty—it is public leadership

Caregiving extends far beyond parenting, encompassing a vast ecosystem of unpaid and underpaid labor that includes elder care, support for persons with disabilities, and emotional caregiving within extended families and communities. These roles are often filled by women who, in addition to raising children, care for aging parents, ill relatives, or neighbors—work that is physically and emotionally demanding, yet largely invisible in public discourse.

“Caregivers are often the first responders in times of crisis offering stability and emotional resilience when formal systems fall short.”

Domestic workers, community health volunteers, midwives, and informal care providers form the backbone of care economies in South and Southeast Asia. They are often the first responders in times of crisis—pandemics, natural disasters, and economic shocks—offering stability and emotional resilience when formal systems fall short.

In rural and lower-income communities, it is often women who organise informal networks of caregiving—sharing food, checking in on neighbors, or walking children to school—acts that, while small in scale, reflect powerful leadership in sustaining collective well-being.

These caregiving roles, when acknowledged and supported, serve as a form of social infrastructure—one that holds together households, neighborhoods, and entire communities. Yet, without proper recognition, remuneration, or legal protections, caregivers continue to bear this weight unsupported and undervalued.

“Without proper recognition, remuneration, or legal protections, caregivers continue to bear this weight unsupported and undervalued.”

 

Lastly, when we talk about caregiving, we must also talk about intergenerational leadership—how grandmothers, aunts, and older siblings shape values, traditions, and resilience within families. Their stories, often absent from policy conversations, offer rich insight into how care work is passed down, adapted, and resisted across generations.

Centering the voices of parents and caregivers in communications and advocacy mobilises these groups and their allies to support the policies that matter most. These include extending and strengthening maternity and parental leave, increasing accessible state support to low-income households and single parents, and improving health services for children with diverse needs, including children with disabilities.

Caregiving is not just a private duty—it is public leadership, cultural labor, and social infrastructure. When we recognise caregivers as leaders, we open the door to a more just and equitable future, one where those who nurture our societies are no longer overlooked. Valuing care means valuing the people who give it, and that is the first step toward building policies, systems, and cultures that truly reflect the societies we want to become.

Learn more about LoveFrankie’s work