Alex Porter argues that policymakers have long framed childcare primarily as a tool to encourage parents-especially mothers-into paid work, rather than supporting parenthood itself. This “work-first” mindset aligns with welfare models that value employment over familial support, and it overlooks childcare’s broader societal functions like early childhood development, gender equality, and cultural reproduction. Porter highlights a disconnect: expanding free hours of childcare enables parental choice but fails to address deeper structural issues like low pay and job inflexibility, which continue to burden families, predominantly women.
Porter also provides a feminist critique of our inadequate conceptual tools, showing how childcare is socially undervalued and left fragile in the policy landscape. She highlights that this neglect places the onus of childcare on individual families rather than society, propelling inequalities in employment, wages, and emotional well-being among caregivers. According to Porter, rethinking childcare means elevating it as a public good that supports parents, children, and communities-contending that unless we shift from the narrow goal of enabling work to recognizing childcare’s broader role, our welfare policies will perpetuate gendered and class inequalities.