women meanwhile are overburdened with work and demands as they continue to perform their traditional role as caregivers a role regarded as natural while simultaneously taking on new responsibilities in public life and in the labour market the worsening care crisis calls for a reform of social protection systems and labour practices as well as a transformation of cultural norms that sanction an unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work between women and men these divergent trends are affecting the continuity and balance of traditional care arrangements in the region s societies they are limiting women s ability to enter the labour market unimpeded by traditional barriers and thus their ability to achieve greater economic autonomy and wellbeing in other words there is a situation of rising demand as a result of demographic transition and falling supply as a result of the entry of women into the labour force the tension between these two phenomena acts as a brake on women s ability to increase their labour market participation and calls for a review of the design and application of related public policies