The Care Economy al América Latina: A Multi-scalar Feminist Project

Abstract

Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) created an opening to put the care economy on the global agenda, but the idea found particularly fertile ground in Latin America and the Caribbean well before COVID. This article examines the way the idea and practice of a care economy has been developed by feminists in the region. It looks at the role played by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the triennial Regional Conferences on Women in putting it on the regional agenda. Turning to the Uruguayan example, it looks at how feminists were able successfully to push for a national care system, using the idea of the care economy as a coalition magnet. When facing blockages at the national scale elsewhere, however, Latin American feminists have adopted a multi-scalar strategy, finding openings especially at the local scale, as the examples of Bogotá and Mexico City suggest.