WUNRN
Feminist Political Economy Analysis of Public Policies Related to Care
Deepta Chopra - (with Alexandra Wanjiku Kelbert and Padmini Iyer)
DIrect Link to Full 78-Page 2013
Document:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Unpaid care work is directly
linked to the economic empowerment of women and girls. There is a large and
robust body of evidence about the extent of unpaid care work that women and
girls do, and its contributions to both the economy and human development
outcomes. But is this evidence being used to inform public policy? Doing so
would include recognising the role of women and girls in the provision of
unpaid care; the need to reduce the drudgery of unpaid care; and the need to
redistribute unpaid care work (from women to men, and from the family to
communities and the state), thus laying the basis for true gender equality.
This review of secondary material aims to identify the political economy
conditions of where, why, when and how unpaid care concerns become more visible
on domestic policy agendas.
The review is informed by the
theoretical and empirical insights of feminist political economy analysis to
understand the processes and factors involved in gaining greater visibility for
unpaid care concerns in national policy agendas. This requires looking not just
at institutions, interests and incentives, but also at the interactions between
gendered ideas, discourses and actors involved in the construction, implementation
and evaluation of policy within specific contexts to produce ‘success’.
‘Success’ in incorporating unpaid care into the national public policy agenda
is understood to mean that public policies (1) signal recognition of women’s
contributions through unpaid care work; (2) reduce the drudgery associated with
performing care; and (3) redistribute responsibilities for care (e.g. towards
the state, community, men. Policies are examined at three junctures: intent
(aims and design provisions); implementation (how intent is translated into
action); and outcomes (consequences).
The review examines public
policies in two sectors where the provision of unpaid care is indisputably a
factor in determining both uptake and outcome of services, namely Social
Protection and early childhood development (ECD). The review considers the
extent to which policies and programmes in these sectors are being designed and
implemented in ways that address unpaid care concerns and give the issue
greater visibility. A literature search was undertaken for these two sectors in
all low- and middle-income countries for the past 20 years, with reference to
documentation also available on the internet.
The main findings of the
review point to significant invisibility of unpaid care concerns in public
policy in the two sectors examined. A very small proportion of policies – 25
out of 107 social protection policies and 41 out of 270 ECD policies –
expressed an intent to address unpaid care concerns; and among those that did
recognise care, the main focus was on redistributing care responsibilities from
the family to the state. There are no social protection policies that aim to
redistribute unpaid care work from women to men, and only two consider either
providing support or reducing the drudgery of care. Among the ECD policies,
support for carers in terms of better parenting is widespread, often
acknowledging men’s role as fathers. Redistribution of care from the family to
the state is based on recognition that women need to work outside the home in
paid jobs. No policies have been identified that are oriented towards reducing
the drudgery of unpaid care.
Overall, the review found
little information about how or why policies had incorporated these intents
relating to unpaid care. Evidence (on the benefits of incorporating concerns
about unpaid care) seems to be a relatively insignificant factor, with context
and the presence of ‘champions’ seeming to play a more significant role. The
findings suggest that the regional spread of ideas, changing demographics, and
shared discourses about gender roles most likely influence how unpaid care is
incorporated into policy. But the lack of detailed information on contexts,
actors and discourses makes it difficult to draw any more substantive
conclusions. This also reflects the fact that unpaid care concerns remain
largely invisible among researchers examining policy processes. Literature on
the political economy of implementation and the evaluation of successes is
equally scant, with only a couple of studies capturing the benefits of
redistribution of unpaid care work in terms of relieving pressures on working
mothers and allowing women to study or otherwise invest in their human and
social capital. Empirical material on beneficiary perceptions of policy benefits
has also not been analysed through the lens of unpaid care. This reinforces a
perpetual cycle whereby unpaid care concerns remain invisible at all stages and
levels – within policy implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and among the
main actors involved, including donors, government officials and researchers.
The review finds that unpaid
care work is invisible across public policy in the two sectors studied –
whether in relation to intent, implementation or outcomes. The ECD and social
protection sectors were chosen because they were most likely to include unpaid
care concerns; desk-based reviews of other key sectors – notably agriculture,
water and sanitation – are required in order to establish the full extent to
which unpaid care concerns are invisible in public policies more generally.
Finally, the review has found
that little is known about the political economy conditions under which unpaid
care concerns are more likely to become institutionalised in policy agendas and
translated into implementation and outcomes, which points to the multi-layered,
nuanced and thus enduring invisibility of unpaid care in these two sectors. The
review identifies a need for more empirical research to explore the
interactions between gendered ideas and discourses, actors, social norms and
values, interests and motivations, and the institutions that shape the
visibility (or invisibility) of unpaid care within public policies on social
protection and early childhood development. Adopting a feminist political economy
lens for this kind of analysis can highlight the gender-specific success
factors and obstacles to public policies that recognise unpaid care work,
reduce the drudgery associated with it, and redistribute it in a systematic
manner.