Can subsidized early child care promote women’s employment? : evidence from Kenya

Abstract

Women’s disproportionate child care responsibilities significantly impede their labor force participation. Subsidizing child care for women in poor urban settings can be a powerful mechanism to improve women's employment outcomes and reduce gender inequalities in Africa. To test whether child care obligations limit African women from engaging in paid work, researchers from McGill University and the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) conducted a randomized study that provided subsidized early child care (ECC) to selected mothers living in a slum area of Nairobi, Kenya.