Women, Work and Early Childhood: The Nexus in Developed and Developing Countries.

Most female workers in developing countries do not have wage jobs. However, the preponderance of female workers in non-wage jobs is not consistent across all developing countries. It is highly likely that the proportion of non-wage female workers in developing countries is greater than is suggested by the statistics. Consequently, mothers in the developing world cannot be assumed to be freely available to serve as full-time child caretakers, and the demand for early childhood care and education and family benefits and services (ECCE-FBS) among working mothers in developing countries is huge. These facts have the following implications for ECCE-FBS policy in developing countries: (1) family support measures such as parental leave are unlikely to be available in developing countries in the near future; (2) given a relatively high per-child cost, institutional services for children under the age of 3 are also out of reach in most developing countries; (3) mothers in disadvantaged countries are not easily available to attend classes; and (4) investment in the education of girls and women will have a synergistic effect on the development of ECCE-FBS. Encouraging women, through good education, to participate more actively in the formal labor market is not only a sound economic strategy but also a strategy for ECCE-FBS. (MN)