abstract: 'Since the year 2000, the provision of early years education and care for

  the under-threes (hereafter 0-3 ECEC) in Spain has undergone a steady

  increase. This growth has taken place in all of the seventeen Autonomous

  Communities, albeit not in a uniform way. In this article we study how

  different institutional designs at the regional level have an impact on

  equality of opportunities, both in how families access the service and

  in how much they pay. We try to ascertain under what conditions ECEC can

  go beyond a policy that helps families juggle work and family

  responsibilities, and becomes a redistributive and equal opportunities

  policy that helps the most socially disadvantaged groups access it while

  defraying its cost. We analyse how state regulations regarding ECEC have

  evolved from the 1990 LOGSE to the 2020 LOMLOE, and we compare seven

  Autonomous Communities which each have different levels of coverage and

  management models. Our study concludes that although there are

  differences in both access criteria and in the price of services, all

  the Autonomous Communities studied have been moving towards a service

  that aims to be more equitable, with an explicit recognition of the

  particular difficulties caused by low income, disabilities, being a

  single parent, or gender-based violence. Even so, certain structural

  characteristics of ECEC -such as the fluctuating nature of its

  financing, its weak public regulation and monitoring, and significant

  outsourcing to private providers- make it difficult to universalise the

  service in order to make it a truly redistributive policy.'
affiliation: 'Leon, M (Corresponding Author), Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Barcelona,
  Spain.

  Leon, Margarita; Palomera, David; Ibanez, Zyab, Univ Autonoma Barcelona, Barcelona,
  Spain.

  Martinez-Virto, Lucia, Univ Publ Navarra, Navarra, Spain.

  Gabaldon-Estevan, Daniel, Univ Valencia, Valencia, Spain.'
article-number: e3084
author: Leon, Margarita and Palomera, David and Ibanez, Zyab and Martinez-Virto, Lucia
  and Gabaldon-Estevan, Daniel
author-email: 'margarita.leon@uab.cat

  david.palomera@uab.cat

  zyabluis.ibanez@uab.cat

  lucia.martinez@uv.es

  daniel.gabaldon@uv.es'
author_list:
- family: Leon
  given: Margarita
- family: Palomera
  given: David
- family: Ibanez
  given: Zyab
- family: Martinez-Virto
  given: Lucia
- family: Gabaldon-Estevan
  given: Daniel
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.5565/rev/papers.3084
eissn: 2013-9004
files: []
issn: 0210-2862
journal: PAPERS-REVISTA DE SOCIOLOGIA
keywords: 'Early Childhood Education and Care; Social Investment; Equity; Spain;

  Autonomous Communities'
language: English
number: '3'
number-of-cited-references: '30'
papis_id: 8f0067ea4f57b15442f3d726da101bc4
ref: Leon2022equalopportunities
times-cited: '1'
title: 'Between equal opportunities and work-life balance: balancing institutional
  design in early years education in Spain'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000976761400008
usage-count-last-180-days: '0'
usage-count-since-2013: '0'
volume: '107'
web-of-science-categories: Sociology
year: '2022'