Familism by Default: How Inadequate Childcare Services Reproduce Gender Inequality in Peru’s Urban Peripheries

Based on interviews with mothers in Peru’s urban peripheries, the article analyses families’ childcare strategies and perceptions of institutional services. The results show how inadequate public childcare—characterized by volunteer staffing, safety concerns, and limited eligibility—forces families to rely on female family networks. While facilitated by trust bonds among women relatives, these arrangements represent coping mechanisms rather than choices, reinforcing familistic welfare regime. The state’s failure to provide adequate childcare services, combined with cultural norms of intergenerational family solidarity, perpetuates women’s dependence on family networks and restricts their labor market participation, constituting the primary mechanism reproducing Peru’s familistic welfare regime.