Can Subsidized Early Child Care Promote Women's Employment? Evidence from Kenya

From GrOW/McGill. In this study, researchers tested whether access to affordable and improved-quality day care influenced women’s labor market engagement in Korogocho slum in Nairobi, through the evaluation of a randomized control trial (RCT) with three study arms. Mothers in two of the study arms were given vouchers for subsidized center- based ECC for one year. To examine whether the quality of child care centers affected women’s use of ECC services, about half of the day cares participating in the voucher program were randomly selected to receive additional provider training and materials such as mattresses, potties, toys, and hand-washing stations.

Key findings

• Mothers were eager to send their children to early child care centers.

• Mothers who received subsidized child care were 17% more likely to be employed than mothers who did not.

• Working mothers who received subsidized child care were able to work on average five fewer hours per week than those who did not, without any loss to their earnings.

• Subsidizing child care helped mothers to both find and maintain employment.

• Cost, more so than concerns over quality, is the main barrier to women accessing center-based child care.