The Politics of Childcare

The politics of childcare has become a vibrant area of research. This review analyzes the evolution of this research over several decades and identifies two phases of scholarship. The first phase concerned the limited public supports for childcare in most countries and how this reinforced a particular gender order. A second current of research took off as many countries expanded their childcare systems and highlighted the role of electoral politics and ideas about public spending on childcare as an investment in human capital. In the drive to explain patterns of policy change, the research focus has narrowed, occluding the substantive impact of different childcare systems. Future research should probe the stubbornness of gender inequalities in paid work and care and how politics and public policies shape different care economies.