Care Work between Defamilialization and Commodification

Abstract

The article aims to evaluate the practical possibilities of implementing defamilialization policies in the society of crisis without introducing elements of inequality. At a time of profound changes in the welfare system, labour market and households, defamilialization is presented as a policy that is unsustainable. Starting from a critical reading of the thought of Esping-Andersen, this article stands out as there is no certainty that the virtuous circle of rise in defamilialization-female employment-demand for new services is activated independently from the bottom. At the same time, the hypothesis of defamilialization through the growth of private market services at affordable 'prices' to families is based on a reductive conception of care work, seen only as domestic work and social cost, which would still continue to be a burden to women and would turn the market – at an affordable cost! – into what is already done at home free of charge.