The Predicament of Childcare Policy in France: What Is at Stake?

France is well known for providing working parents with formal childcare arrangements and generous benefits aimed at reducing costs for families. Currently, and despite a general tightening of purse strings in the social security administration, childcare policy has continued to see increases in funding and remains a growth area in the French welfare state. Yet reforms introduced periodically since the mid-1980s illustrate clearly the growing influence employment policies are having on childcare provisions.

For all the rhetoric devoted to the promotion of ‘freedom of choice’ for parents in the childcare sector evidence suggests a different set of priorities. In reality, the impetus to increase the number of options for the placement of children in supervised care derives from the desire to bring more mothers into the workforce while at the same time satisfying the increasing demands placed on employees through the development of flexible work schedules and in particular non-standard work hours.