Abstract

LOPEZ ESTRADA, Silvia. (Re)privatizing Childcare in Mexico. The modifications to the National Childcare Program. Rev. interdiscip. estud. género Col. Méx. [online]. 2020, vol.6, e480.  Epub Feb 14, 2020. ISSN 2395-9185.  https://doi.org/10.24201/reg.v6i0.480.

Research about childcare policies shows evidence that subsidies for childcare provision of services increase the female participation in the labor force, while subsidies based on direct transfers promote that women stay at home to take care of their children. In a context of governmental austerity in Mexico, the aim of this article is to analyze the substitution of the Childcare Sedesol Program, which consisted of indirect transfers to daycare centers, by the Welfare of Children of Working Mothers Program, based on direct monetary transfers to parents. Based on the literature review as well as on the analysis of the design of both programs, the article suggests that the goal and actions of the new program might result in female unemployment, the privatization of childcare within the families, as well as its invisibility and devaluation.

Keywords : social programmes; social development and public policy; sexual division of labor; child welfare; child development.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )