Childcare policies and services in Hong Kong after the handover: Beyond a feminist critique

This article reviews the development of childcare policies and services in Hong Kong after the handover, gauging it with two standards: promoting the equal development of children and gender equality in our society. Statistics derived from data taken from multiple sources show that the government ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian social work and policy review 2019, 13(3), , pp.295-306
Main Authors: Xia, Lily L. L., Ma, Joyce L. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child care
Child care services
Child development
childcare policies and services
Children
Equality
Expenditures
Family leave
Feminism
feminist perspective
Financial support
Gaging
gender equality
Gender equity
Gender inequality
Government spending
Hong Kong after the handover
Money
Policies
Services
Social policy
social welfare development
Statistics
Wives
사회복지학
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Summary:This article reviews the development of childcare policies and services in Hong Kong after the handover, gauging it with two standards: promoting the equal development of children and gender equality in our society. Statistics derived from data taken from multiple sources show that the government has been sticking to a “positive non‐intervention approach” to welfare development and that the male breadwinner/female carer model prevalent in this region was shaped and strengthened by current childcare policies and services. The current provision of childcare services is insufficient to guarantee the equal use of childcare among children of different socioeconomic backgrounds, or to ease the tension between the needs of childcare and job requirements in a family, or to emancipate married women from the domestic sphere. A “generative welfare approach” that collects fiscal resources and redistributes them strategically with a systemic mind‐set has been suggested for social policy and service planning, including spending the money in the right place, launching smart and practical policies that can achieve both pragmatic effects and ideological improvement in the area of gender equality, providing financial support or subsidies to a company for the provision of parental leave, and increasing the provision of quality childcare services.
ISSN:1753-1403
1753-1411
DOI:10.1111/aswp.12182