Does after-school child care increase the female workforce?

Responsible researcher: Eduarda Miller de Figueiredo

Article title: CHILDCARE EFFECTS ON MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT: EVIDENCE FROM CHILE

Article authors: Claudia Martínez A. and Marcela Perticará

Location of intervention: Chile

Sample size: 25 schools – 2,110 participants

Big topic: Job Market

Type of Intervention: Offering after-school care in an educational establishment

Variable of main interest: Female labor force

Evaluation method: Experimental Evaluation (RCT)

Policy Problem

The workforce is different for men and women. Considering the entire world in 2014, female labor force participation (FLFP) reached 55.3% while male participation was 81.7%. One of the possible reasons for this to occur is because women dedicate more time to domestic work and caring for children (Berniell and Sáncez-Páramo, 2011). However, equal access to the job market is a measure of gender equality, as well as being a tool for growth (Duflo, 2012).

Furthermore, this greater female representation in the workforce is also a poverty reduction strategy, as families headed by women are more dense in the lowest income quintiles in Latin America (Araujo and López-Boo, 2015). In Chile, 51% of families have women as heads of families.

Research on other continents has shown that the use of daycare increases the probability of employment by 10 percentage points, with other studies finding stronger effects for single mothers (Goux and Maurin, 2010; Nollenberger and Rodriguez-Planas, 2015).

Assessment Context

In Chile, women represent 40% of the total labor supply and the difference in FLFP between men and women is approximately 25 percentage points, increasing to 30-35 percentage points in periods associated with childbirth and childcare. Females cite childcare as a reason for not participating in the job market, with 20% being women with children aged 6 to 13 and 30% having children aged 0 to 5 years.

Furthermore, women face the problem of not offering daycare for older children after school hours, as public primary schools end at 4pm, with some exceptions on days where they end at 1pm. Chile since 2006 has expanded public child care for children under five with the aim of improving capital and FLFP rates, with facilities increasingly offering their services until 7pm, being compatible with full-time working hours. But studies have found that the FLFP has not demonstrated an effect on this expansion, on average.

Policy Details

The 4-7 program provides three hours of after-school care at an educational facility for children ages 6 to 13 while their mothers are working, looking for a job, or participating in training courses or formal education programs. This will allow women who are responsible for their children to enter and become attached to work.

The program operated after school hours during the week, in 2012, and times could be adjusted according to school schedules. Regardless of opening hours, all establishments must be open for at least 3 hours a day. Children had time to do their schoolwork, as well as time for extracurricular activities, such as art and sports. Thus, free daycare allows mothers who care for their children in the afternoon to send them to the program and use this time for other activities.

Assessment Method

The Chilean municipalities selected for participation in the program were chosen by observing other programs existing in that territory, the number of children in the program's age group who were in municipal schools and the proportion of economically active women in that municipality compared to the regional average.

The program was carried out in 25 schools located in 21 municipalities, in 2012. Each mother who intended to participate in the program had to fill out a form to meet the necessary requirements for participation. The eligibility requirements are:

1. Mothers and/or women responsible for at least one child between 6 and 13 years old;
2. Mothers and/or women over 18 years of age who work or live in the municipality of the educational institution where the program will be implemented or with at least one child studying at that institution;
3. Mothers and/or women with a lower score on the Social Protection Index.

After filling out the form with data about the family, registrations were randomized and separated into treatment and control groups, in which the randomization unit was the mother. Participants in the treatment group received a place in the program, while those in the control group were not invited. Therefore, of the 2,110 participants, 973 women were selected for the control group and 1,137 for the treatment group. Considering the entire sample, 62% are employed women without children under 5 years of age, 369 are employed mothers with young children and 109 are mothers who do not work and have young children.

At the end of 2012, qualitative and quantitative information about the implementation of the program was collected with visits to participating schools. Furthermore, in a household survey carried out in 2013, the women's work history was requested, as well as their involvement in daycare and participation in the program.

Results

Intention-to-treat (ITT) effects were estimated, as it considers the effect of the government offering the option of after-school care and letting each family decide how much treatment they need. In other words, you can send your child to this establishment every day, throughout the year or just a few times a week.

The program offering increased the use of formal daycare for children under 6 by 6.5 percentage points and this effect was driven by an increase in the use of free daycare. Offering a place in the program increases the probability of women participating in the job market, an increase of 7% compared to the control group average. In addition, the probability of working at least one month increases by 5%. Therefore, the authors conclude that offering a place in free daycare increases FLFP.

In relation to the number of hours worked, the program had no effect. Just as there was no effect on the disposable income of these families. However, an effect was found in increasing family expenses, where there was a 13% increase in school expenses and a 19% increase in women's clothing. The effects are heterogeneous between different groups of mothers, where the offer of a place in free daycare increases the probability of employment by 12.3 percentage points for mothers with young children.

Women who do not work or have young children were also not impacted by this program, this may have happened because they are older women with older children. Furthermore, they have lower educational levels and in Chile these women are more likely to have a sexist view of gender: they believe that women need to take care of the house and children and need a man to take care of the financial part, according to Comunidad Woman (2013).

Public Policy Lessons

The study demonstrates that providing childcare for all ages is important if the goal is to increase female participation in the workforce. But this is not a “magic solution”, as additional policies are needed to include women with no experience in the job market.

References

MARTÍNEZ, Claudia; PERTICARÁ, Marcela. Childcare effects on maternal employment: Evidence from Chile. Journal of Development Economics, vol. 126, p. 127-137, 2017.