This paper provides a conceptual lens to address the complexity of policies involved in reconciling paid work and family responsibilities. Our typology classifies policies by how they intervene in the relation between paid work and family relations-by alternating paid and unpaid work, by transferring unpaid work outside the family or by formalizing home-based paid care-and by disaggregating implications for both social equity and gender relations (maternalism versus paternal or state co-responsibility) across policies. The paper makes a three-fold contribution. First, our typology looks at a set of policies rather than specific policies or overall policy regimes. Second, it helps disaggregate implications for gender and social equity. Third, it allows for comparative analysis of small and large numbers of cases across policy stages. Although we draw on Latin America, 1 our typology has broader application and is especially suited to examining countries with high-income inequality.

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Teniendo como telón de fondo el aumento sustantivo de la participación laboral femenina en toda la región latinoamericana, en este artículo se caracterizan las políticas adoptadas para conciliar la vida familiar y laboral entre 2003 y 2013, así como las implicaciones del diseño de estas medidas para la equidad socioeconómica y de género. Se abordan los casos de la Argentina, el Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica y el Uruguay, cinco países de la región que, en función de sus trayectorias históricas, tienen las mejores condiciones relativas para ejecutar medidas que reorganicen tiempos, ingresos y servicios. El análisis empírico indica, primero, que estas transformaciones favorecieron más homogéneamente la equidad socioeconómica que la equidad de género. Segundo, se identificaron variaciones significativas entre países, tanto en la magnitud como en el tipo de cambio ocurrido. El trabajo concluye con interrogantes sustantivos respecto de las medidas, su implementación y efectividad, y las variaciones entre países. PALABRAS CLAVEMujeres, empleo de la mujer, familia, roles de los géneros, igualdad de género, derechos de la mujer, política social, Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Costa Rica, Uruguay CLASIFICACIÓN JEL I38 AUTORASMerike Blofield es profesora asociada de la Universidad de Miami. m

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About 30% of households are intimately involved in paid domestic work in Latin America, either as employers or as workers. Paid domestic workers overwhelmingly are female, from racial and ethnic minorities, and earn low wages. Labour codes have historically accorded them fewer rights and protections. Domestic workers have organized to demand equal rights, and recently, this organizing has begun to pay off. This article discusses the dynamics of paid domestic work through the themes of commodification and changes in government policies. Through a comparison of post-millennium Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico and Peru, the article compares the working conditions and struggles of domestic workers and highlights the factors that explain different outcomes in terms of labour rights and protections across these countries. It is argued that stronger rights and protections were made possible by the interactive effects of domestic workers organizing, more sympathetic left-wing governments, and the watershed ILO 2011 Convention on Domestic Workers.

This article discusses policy outputs on gender equality. First it reviews literature that tries to categorize the policies promoting or reducing gender equality and then takes a look at the different stages of the policy process, where it introduces women’s reproductive capacities, the work–family nexus, and violence against women. The article also takes a look at the efforts of scholars to make the larger dynamics of gender equality more visible and discusses the variation present in the different stages of policy outputs.

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This article evaluates 38 bills seeking to expand women's rights in Chile and finds that the successful ones often originated with the Executive National Women's Ministry (SERNAM), did not threaten existing definitions of gender roles, and did not require economic redistribution. These factors (plus the considerable influence of the Catholic Church) correlate in important ways, and tend to constrain political actors in ways not apparent from an examination of institutional roles or ideological identity alone. In particular, the Chilean left's strategic response to this complex web of interactions has enabled it to gain greater legislative influence on these issues over time.