Resumo

LOPEZ ESTRADA, Silvia. Políticas de cuidado infantil, género y ciudadanía. El proyecto CAI en Tijuana. La ventana [online]. 2007, vol.3, n.26, pp.125-166. ISSN 1405-9436.

Childcare has been traditionally neglected as a key issue for public policies in Mexico. The main goal of this article is to analyze the childcare strategies of families and the State, focusing on the governmental project Casas de Atención Infantil (CAI) in Tijuana, Mexico. In the context of a brief history of childcare policies in this country, I analyze the impact of this project on the well-being of working mothers at CAI, as well as on the children that these women look after. The article analyzes the project design of CAI, and is based on a small survey with women beneficiaries of the CAI project, as well as interviews with some of them. According to the study’s findings, the CAI as income generating project for poor women did not take into account women’s childcare needs, and this lack of concern about women’s rights hinders their access to citizenship.

Palavras-chave : childcare; gender policies; social inequality; poverty; citizenship.