Globally, the lack of childcare services is associated with lower rates of female labor force participation. Having children between 0-5 years old significantly lowers women’s opportunities to join the labor market and retain their jobs. Given that women are predominantly responsible for unpaid care work, the correlation of increased public preschool availability and women’s labor force participation is not surprising.

This session will feature findings from three different studies released by the East Asia and Pacific Gender Innovation Lab (EAP GIL), the Mashreq Gender Facility (MGF), and the South Asia Gender Innovation Lab (SAR GIL), which show that making childcare services available increases women’s chances of participating in the labor market. Results from EAP GIL’s research in Indonesia suggest that features of childcare services, such as number of hours they are open for, may have important implication for women’s labor market outcomes, such as paid or unpaid work, number of hours worked, and ultimately, welfare outcomes of women and their households. In its report, the MGF finds that getting married and having children is associated with lower labor force participation rates for women in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, and calls for adequate legal and regulatory framework, and the promotion of more gender equitable norms around care responsibilities.