Working parents’ right to childcare in Chile

Objective: This article examines Chilean working parents’ perceptions about the right to childcare, care needs, and the future of this right. Background: There is widespread debate about working parents’ care strategies and their capacity to reconcile work and family. Latin American studies have concentrated on welfare regimens, social protection policies, and flexibility in the labor market. However, few studies have explored how workers exercise their right to childcare and its consequences for the work–life dilemma. Methods: Data were collected in 29 semistructured interviews with couples and eight discussion groups with working parents. A total of 109 people participated, 56 men and 53 women. Results: The findings show the ambivalent nature of working parents’ right to childcare, with limited time and benefits, and the need to extend it to all workers in the future. Conclusion: Exercising the right to childcare is transitory due to its short duration, and partially because it is meant for working parents who have their social security payments up to date. Both characteristics are partly due to the weakness of the institutional mechanisms that guarantee the right to childcare. Support for the extension of this right by those interviewed clashes with general distrust toward making use of the right. Implications: The findings suggest that State resources for childcare are insufficient without education rights. Education as a prolongation of care is a future demand of working parents with children beyond the pre-school stage.