Sharing the Caring Responsibility Between the Private and the Public: Childcare, Parental Choice, and Inequality

It is increasingly recognised that early childhood education and care (ECEC) can contribute to equal opportunities. However, the conditions to realise this potential are far from being generally acquired as access to high-quality ECEC is unequal since children from poor families tend to be less often enrolled in ECEC than their better off peers. An overview of research examining this global phenomenon reveals that this inequality is not so much a matter of parental choice, but rather of structural barriers and therefore of policies. Countries that consider childcare as a public responsibility seem to do better than those that consider childcare as a private commodity.