ABSTRACT
Childcare serves two functions: support for maternal employment developmental enrichment for children. Public policies in the United States for these two functions have followed very different paths, in part because their goals are different. For low-income families, subsidies for childcare constitute the major public policy to support maternal employment. Head Start and other early intervention programs represent government efforts to provide developmental enrichment. One of the most dramatic shifts in western societies during the last half of the 20th century was entry of women with children into the labor market. As noted Presser's chapter, 70" of mothers with children in the US employed; 51" of them work full-time. In families with low incomes compared to those with higher incomes, mothers are less likely to be employed, and when they are employed they work fewer hours. A disproportionate number of low-income families are headed by single mothers, so maternal employment is central to their economic well-being.
