Childcare policies in South America: the persistence of selectivity and maternalism in care services expansion

Gabriela Marzonetto

Chapter 25 in Research Handbook on Social Care Policy, 2025, pp 395-410 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: During the first decades of the twenty-first century, childcare policies were at the center of the social protection strategy deployed by Governments in South American Countries. Childcare policies were understood as an important tool to reach the most vulnerable through the protection of rights and the direct provision of health, nutrition, schooling and early development services. Along this line, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) services – together with cash transfers – were one of the most extended policies, for the prospective to guarantee childcare while encouraging female labour participation of mothers. In this matter, the role of international organizations as promoters of these policies has a crucial influence in the region. In this chapter, it is analyzed to what extent the implementation of ECEC services contributed to transforming the social inclusion rationale and to altering a traditional gender division of labour in four countries of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay).

Keywords: Childcare; South America; Segmentation; Selectivity; Care policy; Social inclusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781839103681
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