Irish women ‘sold childcare myth created by EU’

IRISH women are being sold a “myth” that better access to affordable, quality childcare will improve their career prospects, a leading academic has claimed.

Dr Catherine Hakim told a conference that the theory ignored the fact that only a minority of mothers wanted to work full-time and it risked neglecting supports for women who stay at home.

The sociology lecturer from London School of Economics said that in Sweden — long held up as the model for state-provided, subsidised daycare — only 30% of women actually wanted to work full-time outside the home and the gender pay gap and predominance of women in traditional public sector jobs was more pronounced than in many other EU countries.