WUNRN
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A Feminist Political Economy Analysis of
Public Policies Related to Care: A Thematic Review
Chopra, Deepta; Kelbert, Alexandra; Iyer, Padmini IDS
Direct Link to Full 78-Page IDS Report:
http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/123456789/2795/bitstream?sequence=1
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... read more 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.
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 4 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 recognize unpaid care work, reduce the
drudgery associated with it, and redistribute it in a systematic manner.