| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 政治學研究所 === 101 === The early childhood care and education sector in Taiwan has long suffered from high prices, uneven service quality, and poor working conditions. In historical context, this phenomenon is closely related to the lack of participation of female workers in the sector in the development of childcare policies. Therefore, in order to improve the childhood care and education environment in Taiwan, the state should develop democratic participation mechanisms and open up policy deliberation to female workers in the sector. This research is concerned with the complexity of childhood care and education provision and gender equality goals, and investigates whether, faced with societal demands to bring preschool education into the public sector, central government policy in this area has developed democratic governance mechanisms at the local level and how female workers in the sector can genuinely participate in these mechanisms.
Using in-depth interviews, this study compares two different institutional designs for public-sector preschools and the interaction between actors under the two different designs. The study finds that, on the hand, during the central government policy development process, as the institutional planning process and governance platform is open to representatives from civil society groups, policy planning allows for the possibility of democratic governance mechanisms at the local level. However, the key location for the participation of female workers in the sector lies in these local democratic governance mechanisms. For effective participation, organizations representing female workers in the sector must be empowered and able to represent the interests of the group as a whole. This implies that when state puts resources into the development of the early childhood care and education system, it should not only help establish democratic governance mechanisms but also empower labor organizations. Since better working conditions for female workers in the sector are closely related to better provision of early childhood care and education, these findings may be helpful for policy makers who try to achieve both.
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