Care work refers to those occupations that provide services that help people develop their capabilities, or the ability to pursue the aspects of their lives that they value. Examples of these occupations include child care, all levels of teaching (from preschool through university professors), and health care of all types (nurses, doctors, physical therapists and psychologists).[3] Care work also includes the array of domestic unpaid work that is often disproportionately performed by women.[4]
Care work is frequently focused on the responsibility to provide for dependents, such as children, the sick, and the elderly.[4] However, care work also refers to any work done in the immediate service of others, regardless of the recipient’s dependent or nondependent status, and can even extend to "animals and things."[5]