Public Policy on Child Care in Mexico: The Case of Childcare Centers to Support Working Mothers

In Mexico, childcare has been recognized as a public problem. The growing incorporation of women into the labor market, along with poverty and inequalities, has made it necessary to design and implement public actions aimed at meeting the childcare demands that women, in particular, face. One of these public actions is the Programa Estancias Infantiles (PEI), which sought to contribute to the generation of female employment and the satisfaction of the care needs of children under 6 years of age. After 12 years of operation, childcare centers in Mexico have faced significant changes. With the cancellation of this program in 2019, a significant number of women who had been dedicated to childcare for years faced reductions in their salaries and, in many cases, lost their jobs due to changes in public policy and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the federal government led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador emphasized that these changes were not intended to close childcare centers, existing evidence shows that they did contribute to a decrease in the supply of care services for working mothers who do not have social security and live in conditions of poverty. This has also impacted the reduction of spaces where women can be employed and have a source of income to meet their daily needs. Government decisions at the beginning of the program and its cancellation were not oriented to de-feminize childcare. This text is based on the doctoral research “De beneficiarias a actoras política: análisis feminista de las experiencias de siete responsables de estancias infantiles y de las transformaciones de la política de cuidado infantil en México,” which is being developed with the support of the Consejo Nacional de Humanidades, Ciencias y Tecnologías (CONAHCYT).