engleski

Childcare Policy Development in South-Eastern Europe through the intersectionality lens

Childcare-related policies become a cornerstone of social investment agenda, a prevalent approach to social policymaking in Europe. However, its underlying idea that investing in children yields benefits for the individual and society gained unequal importance across Europe. That particularly refers to South-Eastern Europe where investments in childcare-related policies were often overlooked and a subject of retrenchment. Moreover, rising national ideology and pronatalist discourse have sought to direct the reforms towards traditional, mother-centred policies. Although these policy developments and their outcomes may enlighten emerging critical social policy debates concerned with redistribution effects of childcare-related policies (e.g., a Matthew effect in the use of leaves/services) and general debates on inclusive growth, they remain underexplored. This paper aims to fulfil this gap by comparatively examining an (in)equality dynamic and implications of childcare-related policies reforms in post-Yugoslav countries. Both parental leave policies and early childhood education and care are analysed, and coherence between these policy areas. Paper provides the first systematic comparative analysis of childcare-related policies developments in post-Yugoslav countries since the 1950s, including their implications for gender and social (in)equalities in care and employment. The analysis shows that strengthened ‘stratified effect’ of childcare-related policies in the region is closely related to changes in policy design, particularly eligibility criteria that increasingly prefer (stable and standard) parents’ employment. These findings, considered within the context of increasingly precarious, underinsured and nonstandard employment, and growing financial strains put in front of the parents, ask for broader thinking on how to redesign childcare- related policies to become more equitable.

childcare policy, post-Yugoslav countries, intersectionality

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