Friendships, the present, the future, and care

Friendships, the present, the future, and care

The article highlights the structural reality in Mexico, where women disproportionately assume caregiving responsibilities, often forcing them to sacrifice their labor and economic opportunities. This inequality not only affects those with fewer resources but permeates all income levels, underscoring the urgent need for accessible, high-quality public services for children, older adults, and people with disabilities. A renewed perspective is proposed by questioning whether the recognition of caregiving rights should be strictly limited to traditional family ties. The proposal suggests expanding this concept to include friendships and mutual aid networks, similar to legislative initiatives in other countries, thereby enabling individuals to actively choose their caregivers without relying exclusively on the conventional family structure. The relevance to open data lies in the need to generate, open, and utilize statistics disaggregated by gender and type of relationship to make these inequalities visible. Without transparent data that reflect both formal and informal care in all its variations, it is impossible to design effective public policies that guarantee the right to care without penalizing women’s economic participation.

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