Supply and demand of infant care in Asunción, Paraguay. Periodo 2011-

Abstract

The article offer and demand of infant care in Asunción, Paraguay aims to pose an invisible problem about the care service, those who care for and those who need care. The economic empowerment of women is one of the great challenges, which puts into debate the care and work, the focus of gender inequalities, and the main entry barrier for the insertion of women in the formal labor market. The methodology was bibliographic-documentary and field, analyzing data at the country, central and capital levels of the General Directorate of Statistics, Surveys and Censuses for the period 2011-2016. For the field work surveys were carried out both to providers and claimants of the care service, through online platforms and visits to a training center, with the data being collected by conventional sampling. Paraguay inserts care from the National Constitution, the Labor Code and the Domestic Work Law. However, according to the analysis carried out, women were the ones who carried the most time of care and those who are in work inactivity in 66.7%. The professionalization of care work is an alternative for the articulation of supply and demand, with several institutions aimed at providing professional promotion. The work of caring for other people, visualized as a profession, would empower those who do it; and those who need services could receive them without major difficulties, taking into account that everyday spaces must be spaces for public policies.