Introduction
Women have always provided the majority of the informal and unpaid care to spouses, children, parents and any other role of the caregiver. Roughly estimated by global statistics, if informal care work that women provide were to be given monetary value, it is calculated to be somewhere from $148 billion to $188 annually (Folbre, 2012). Unpaid/Informal caregivers are estimated to provide 80% of the care required by any regular child and it is all dependent on the mother to provide that for their child and family. This paper will address the policies implemented by the government to help create an informal occupational sector in Mexico and will focus on the roles of man in women in Mexico and why women are the ones who are the main care providers for the family. Not only that, this essay will discuss the complications that are created due to the imbalance of care work shared in a family environment. I picked Mexico because it is known as one of the largest growing countries and its population keeps increasing every year yet they are not developing economically as a country.
Policy Framework for Care There are generally two central policies that underline care policies in any country; Allocation: who is to receive benefits and Financing: who is to pay for benefits (Lightman 2016). In the case of Mexico the allocation and the financing of policies in a family situation are given to the children, in the form of any care work that benefits the children and their home environment and is provided as many times as needed. Mexico's first facility that provided a policy of childcare was in the 19th century and it was established to support working mothers within a market setting. The first childcare facility was called "Guarderas infantiles" where infants from the ages of 0 to 6 years were provided secondary care while their mothers were at work (Hernndez, 2010). It was not until the 1960's that the 134th Constitution Article stated that "childcare was a labor right for working mothers within the government" and this allowed for policies regarding childcare to develop and help those mothers who needed it (Hernndez, 2010).
Folloing that, in the 1970's, the Mexican Education Ministry (Secretara de Educacin Pblica, SEP) becoming legally responsible for forming policies and structures that help develop a child in childcare facilities (Hernndez, 2010). This allowed women to go out, get an education, get a job and provide better futures for their families. By the 1980's there had been a developing demand in more childcare facilities as women saw it as an opportunity to pursue their occupational goals and aspirations. Soon enough, within Mexico, SEP became the major provider of childcare services of the institution Infant Development Centers (IDC), which cares for young children (Hernndez, 2010). These advances in the community and giving the government the opportunity to open up the informal paid sectors for society allowed not only women to...
