Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean

Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of their families and societies. Unleashing the full economic potential of women is nevertheless still a curtailed issue in the region: just about half of wo...

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Main Authors: Mateo Díaz, Mercedes, Rodriguez-Chamussy, Lourdes
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC: World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/985121490174586528/cashing-in-on-education-women-childcare-and-prosperity-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25082
id okr-10986-25082
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-250822021-04-23T14:04:28Z Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean Mateo Díaz, Mercedes Rodriguez-Chamussy, Lourdes LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION CHILDCARE EARLY CHILDHOOD HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS WORKING PARENTS EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION PUBLIC PROGRAMS DAYCARE PARENTAL PREFERENCES PRESCHOOL EQUITY CARE ARRANGEMENTS Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of their families and societies. Unleashing the full economic potential of women is nevertheless still a curtailed issue in the region: just about half of women are unable to participate in paid work. The majority of the population out of the labor market is women between the ages of 24 and 45. This is the largest share of the available pool of unused human capital countries have, and where mothers of young children are concentrated. This book argues that more and better childcare constitutes a fundamental policy option to improve female outcomes in the labor market, but countries need to pay particular attention to the design and features of such services. First-rate educational programs will be useless if children are not enrolled or do not attend formal education centers. A large program expansion will be wasted if parents cannot enroll their children because they are unable to reach the center, don’t trust its quality, if the program is too expensive, or if work and care schedules are not compatible. Through an integrated framework applied to each country and an overview of the existing evidence, this book addresses the why and what questions about policy relevant instruments to achieve female labor participation. Parts I and II of the book lay out the motivation for Latin-American and Caribbean countries to act depicting their current situation both in terms of women’s labor participation and the use and provision of childcare services. Moreover, this book tackles the how question contributing to the incipient evidence about factors affecting the take-up of programs and demand for childcare services and other informal care arrangements. Part III of the book explores how to improve services and implement more and better formal, center-based care arrangements for young children. It looks at international benchmarks, discusses different experiences and proposes specific actions to solve potential inequalities in access to childcare. 2016-09-19T17:20:07Z 2016-09-19T17:20:07Z 2016-09-29 Book https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/985121490174586528/cashing-in-on-education-women-childcare-and-prosperity-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean 978-1-4648-0902-6 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25082 English Latin American Development Forum CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION
CHILDCARE
EARLY CHILDHOOD
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
WORKING PARENTS
EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
DAYCARE
PARENTAL PREFERENCES
PRESCHOOL
EQUITY
CARE ARRANGEMENTS
spellingShingle LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION
CHILDCARE
EARLY CHILDHOOD
HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS
WORKING PARENTS
EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
DAYCARE
PARENTAL PREFERENCES
PRESCHOOL
EQUITY
CARE ARRANGEMENTS
Mateo Díaz, Mercedes
Rodriguez-Chamussy, Lourdes
Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean
relation Latin American Development Forum
description Investments in education across countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have transformed the lives of millions of girls and the prospects of their families and societies. Unleashing the full economic potential of women is nevertheless still a curtailed issue in the region: just about half of women are unable to participate in paid work. The majority of the population out of the labor market is women between the ages of 24 and 45. This is the largest share of the available pool of unused human capital countries have, and where mothers of young children are concentrated. This book argues that more and better childcare constitutes a fundamental policy option to improve female outcomes in the labor market, but countries need to pay particular attention to the design and features of such services. First-rate educational programs will be useless if children are not enrolled or do not attend formal education centers. A large program expansion will be wasted if parents cannot enroll their children because they are unable to reach the center, don’t trust its quality, if the program is too expensive, or if work and care schedules are not compatible. Through an integrated framework applied to each country and an overview of the existing evidence, this book addresses the why and what questions about policy relevant instruments to achieve female labor participation. Parts I and II of the book lay out the motivation for Latin-American and Caribbean countries to act depicting their current situation both in terms of women’s labor participation and the use and provision of childcare services. Moreover, this book tackles the how question contributing to the incipient evidence about factors affecting the take-up of programs and demand for childcare services and other informal care arrangements. Part III of the book explores how to improve services and implement more and better formal, center-based care arrangements for young children. It looks at international benchmarks, discusses different experiences and proposes specific actions to solve potential inequalities in access to childcare.
format Book
author Mateo Díaz, Mercedes
Rodriguez-Chamussy, Lourdes
author_facet Mateo Díaz, Mercedes
Rodriguez-Chamussy, Lourdes
author_sort Mateo Díaz, Mercedes
title Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_short Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_full Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_fullStr Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_full_unstemmed Cashing in on Education : Women, Childcare, and Prosperity in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_sort cashing in on education : women, childcare, and prosperity in latin america and the caribbean
publisher Washington, DC: World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank
publishDate 2016
url https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/985121490174586528/cashing-in-on-education-women-childcare-and-prosperity-in-latin-america-and-the-caribbean
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25082
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