The Politics of Child Daycare in Britain

Arguing that daycare is vital for gender equality, this book seeks to explain why provision, especially public provision, has been so meagre in Britain. Adopting a predominantly institutional approach, it shows how the liberal tradition of limited state intervention has intersected with the private, family, as well as the potentially redistributive, character of childcare issues. It also highlights the gendered assumptions of policy-makers, the centralization of governmental process, the weakness of the childcare lobby, and of feminist mobilization on childcare and simple contingencies of timing. This policy legacy will severely constrain new Labour's commitment to 'meet the childcare challenge'.