Submission 101
Unequal access to childcare? Evidence from a harmonised, cross-national field experiment on anti-Muslim, anti-Black and anti-Roma discrimination
P1-G05-05
Presented by: Valentina Di Stasio
Minorities often face discrimination in multiple life domains, with these effects accumulating over the life course. Correspondence audits are an effective method for measuring discrimination, combining the rigour of the experimental method with the external validity of field studies. However, they typically examine isolated discriminatory incidents in the labour (Zschirnt & Ruedin, 2016) or housing market (Auspurg et al., 2019).
Our study shifts attention to a critical area for children's development and a key prerequisite for (parental and particularly maternal) labour market participation: childcare. We present findings from the first pre-registered, cross-nationally harmonised correspondence test examining discrimination in access to childcare. In early 2024, we sent over 13,500 emails to childcare providers across nine European countries (Belgium, Britain, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland) to measure discrimination against Black, Muslim and Roma families.
In the e-mail, we randomly varied the senders’ names together with cues of success in employment and housing. This innovative design allows us to: 1) test whether discrimination in access to childcare exists; 2) examine whether barriers to access in other life domains affect minorities’ access to childcare, a phenomenon known as side-effects discrimination (Feagin & Eckberg, 1980).
Preliminary results indicate some evidence of discrimination in access to childcare, although its extent varies depending on the minority group and the type of callback considered. Note that these results are really preliminary and only limited to a set of countries. If confirmed, these findings would be consistent with the argument that discrimination is more prevalent in competitive environments where resources are scarce, such as the labour market, than in domains where citizens have a right-based entitlement to public services, such as early education (Gaddis et al., 2021).
Our study shifts attention to a critical area for children's development and a key prerequisite for (parental and particularly maternal) labour market participation: childcare. We present findings from the first pre-registered, cross-nationally harmonised correspondence test examining discrimination in access to childcare. In early 2024, we sent over 13,500 emails to childcare providers across nine European countries (Belgium, Britain, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland) to measure discrimination against Black, Muslim and Roma families.
In the e-mail, we randomly varied the senders’ names together with cues of success in employment and housing. This innovative design allows us to: 1) test whether discrimination in access to childcare exists; 2) examine whether barriers to access in other life domains affect minorities’ access to childcare, a phenomenon known as side-effects discrimination (Feagin & Eckberg, 1980).
Preliminary results indicate some evidence of discrimination in access to childcare, although its extent varies depending on the minority group and the type of callback considered. Note that these results are really preliminary and only limited to a set of countries. If confirmed, these findings would be consistent with the argument that discrimination is more prevalent in competitive environments where resources are scarce, such as the labour market, than in domains where citizens have a right-based entitlement to public services, such as early education (Gaddis et al., 2021).