Family Futures

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] 103

onfronting

amily

overty

any special training or previous experience except for having

completed secondary school, passed a psychological exam

and participated in training courses. In practice, service

providers are poor housewives with children who open

childcare centres in their homes. This initiative resulted in

a considerable expansion of early childcare services in the

country. However, it currently faces the challenge of both

consolidating basic quality standards, and guaranteeing that

caregivers under the programme do not become informal

and low-paid female workers themselves.

Uruguay has also significantly increased coverage of child-

care services through the expansion of the Childhood and

Family Care Centres (CAIF) Plan. The plan follows a service

model managed by social organizations but financed entirely

by the state, directed at low-income families. The centres

are for the most part located in areas of high social vulner-

ability. Currently the CAIF Plan serves more than 45,000

children aged between birth and three years, providing inte-

gral quality care which combines educational and nutritional

components, as well as counselling with the families.

Finally, some countries in the region have also imple-

mented legislation that requires companies of a certain

size to provide childcare services. For example, in Chile

this requirement applies to companies with more than 20

employees. Should this figure be reduced, the employer

may stop providing the service (except for mothers whose

children were using the service prior to the change in the

number of employees). Currently, only mothers are entitled

to this benefit, except in cases where the mother dies, in

which case the father is entitled.

While it is encouraging that childcare policies seem to be

entering the public agenda and it is increasingly recognized

that the provision of this care requires the active partici-

pation of the state, for the most part, these advances are

concentrated in a few countries of the region. Much remains

to be done in order to achieve the goal of implementing

public policies that create a greater balance between work

and family life, to provide quality and affordable alternatives

that would meet the specific needs of the most vulnerable

families, and to promote cultural changes with regard to the

division of housework and care between men and women

within households. It is clear that family policies, particu-

larly those aimed at improving work-family balance, relate

directly to social protection and productive potential by

promoting female employment and labour conditions among

workers. These policies are an investment in the future.

Without these types of policies, countries in the region

will continue to bear the high costs of the underutilization

of female employment potential and its direct effects on

economic development and poverty.

Above all these challenges, although the expansion of child-

care helps reduce the burden of unpaid care for women, these

policies largely reinforce traditional notions regarding the

organization of care work within the home, by placing the

responsibility to provide or to find someone to provide care

exclusively on women, especially poor women. Policies and

programmes still rely heavily on an outdated and traditional

family model, with a male breadwinner and female caregiver.

In view of this and the patriarchal patterns that persist in the

family in Latin American society, it is absolutely essential to

develop policies aimed at both men and women, in order to

promote responsibility and redistribution of the burden of

unpaid work and care. Without such an emphasis and incen-

tives, policies will not achieve a better reconciliation of work

and family life, because family responsibilities will continue

to fall disproportionately on women.

100

With children (<18)

Without children (<18)

Quintile I

Quintile II

Quintile III

Quintile IV

Quintile V

Per cent

Latin America (16 countries): households with and without children (<18 years of age) by income quintile, around 2010

Source: ECLAC, on the basis of tabulations of household surveys in the region