The EU and care policies – From the 1974 Social Action Programme to the 2022 European Care Strategy
(2024) The effects of Covid on care policies and jobs in Europe: Comparative perspectives — Location: UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles (20.June.2024)
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- Starting from the 1980s, there has been an acknowledgement that the issue of unpaid care should be taken into account to achieve equality both in the labour market and in the household. A Network on Childcare was created as early as 1986 and was a first stepping stone, followed by several directives on parental leave or part-time work. Starting from the end of the 1990s, the issue of care and care policies were considered as an economic issue rather than a gender equality one. Providing care services especially was seen as a way to increase female employment’s rates, fight the under-utilisation of human resources, make the labour market more attractive, fight children’s poverty, or falling birth rates. It was also tackled as an internal market issue, with childcare services to be excluded from market regulation. The concern was no longer equality of opportunities but rather employability, and issues such as the redistribution of gender roles within the family or the division of household labour disappeared from the EU’s radar. The new period that opened with the European Care Strategy is more comprehensive as it tackles both care as unpaid work and care jobs. It also put forward again an understanding where care policies have to do with economic policies and public investment. But also where they have to do with social and gender norms, underlining how much care policies and equality policies are intertwined.
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Jacquot, S. (2024). The EU and care policies – From the 1974 Social Action Programme to the 2022 European Care Strategy. The effects of Covid on care policies and jobs in Europe: Comparative perspectives, UCLouvain Saint-Louis Bruxelles. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/234233