A Review of the Effects of Childcare Policies

Jiayi Zeng

School of Politics and International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.

Keywords: Effects, Childcare, Policies.

Abstract: This study investigates the practical effects of the childcare policy "Guidance on Promoting the Development

of Childcare Services for Children under 3 Years Old" in enhancing employment equity for women of

childbearing age. Through a review of 15 core studies, the research analyzes policy implementation across

regions and industries, focusing on financial support, industry adaptability, and legal enforcement. Findings

reveal that while the policy helps reduce career interruption risks for women, its impact is uneven—stronger

in financially developed regions and high-income sectors, and weaker where funding or corporate support is

lacking. Moreover, hidden discrimination and weak legal enforcement hinder real progress. To improve

outcomes, the study suggests increasing fiscal investment, broadening policy coverage, strengthening legal

mechanisms, and encouraging enterprise participation to foster a truly equitable employment environment.

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background and

Questions

In recent years, with the progress of society and the

rise of gender equality awareness, the issue of

women's employment equity has received increasing

attention. Despite the government's successive

introduction of relevant policies such as the

Employment Promotion Law, the Law on the

Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, and the

three-child Policy to reduce gender discrimination

and safeguard women's employment rights. However,

women of childbearing age, as a specific group, still

face hidden discrimination in the workplace. This is

mainly reflected in the fact that companies tend to

choose non-childbearing women or men when

recruiting to avoid the risk of labor disruption due to

childbirth. In addition, the traditional family division

of labor model still reinforces women's primary

responsibility in raising children, causing women at

this stage not only to face blocked career

development, but also to experience lower salaries

and even be forced to leave their jobs due to parenting

issues (Zhu, 2024). This workplace discrimination

and the imbalance of reproductive responsibilities

reinforce each other, creating a vicious cycle that

further tilts corporate recruitment preferences

towards non-childbearing women or men, hindering

women's career development and the realization of

employment equity (Li and Liu, 2023).

1.2 Study Policy and Status

To address this issue, the Chinese government

introduced the targeted childcare policy "Guiding

Opinions on Promoting the Development of

Childcare Services for Infants under 3 Years Old" in

2019. The policy aims to reduce the likelihood of

women of childbearing age being interrupted in their

jobs due to childcare by expanding the supply of

childcare institutions, providing financial subsidies,

and encouraging social capital to participate in

childcare construction (Li et al., 2024). Theoretically,

this policy should be able to promote fair employment

for women, but in practice, its effect has been limited

by several factors, including local fiscal capacity,

industry adaptability and legal enforcement, etc. (Guo

& Dong, 2021). Specifically, at the financial level, the

government's investment in childcare institutions

varies greatly depending on the level of development

in different regions. For example, in first-tier cities

with stronger financial support, such as Guangzhou,

the government is able to provide better childcare

facilities, which have improved employment equity

for women. However, in new first-tier cities such as

Xian, due to an insufficient supply of childcare

institutions, the actual implementation effect of the

policy is limited, and women still face greater

Zeng, J.

A Review of the Effects of Childcare Policies.

DOI: 10.5220/0014373300004859

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science (ICPLSS 2025), pages 283-290

ISBN: 978-989-758-785-6

283

challenges in employment (Guo & Dong, 2021).

Meanwhile, at the industry level, there are also

significant differences in the adaptability of different

industries to the childcare policy. For instance,

companies in high-income sectors such as technology

and finance are more capable of providing childcare

benefits to their employees, while labor-intensive

sectors such as manufacturing and retail may offer

less support due to cost considerations (Zhu, 2024).

This suggests that the implementation of childcare

policies depends not only on government financial

input but also on industrial structure. These factors, to

a large extent, determine whether the childcare policy

can truly promote fair employment for women. In

addition, insufficient enforcement of the law further

limits the effectiveness of the policy. Although the

Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of

Women explicitly prohibits gender discrimination in

employment and guarantees equal employment rights

for women of childbearing age, in reality, due to the

overly principle-based and inoperable provisions of

the law, enterprises can still circumvent relevant legal

responsibilities by means of implicit assessment,

adjusting job requirements, etc. (Dai, 2022).

Therefore, the introduction of policies alone is not

sufficient to ensure fair employment for women, and

the specific implementation methods of the policies

and their actual effects still need further discussion

and evaluation.

1.3 Research Objectives and

Significance

Based on the context mentioned above, this study

aims to explore how the childcare policy "Guidance

on Promoting the Development of Childcare Services

for Children under 3 Years Old" affects employment

equity for women, and focuses on the following three

core questions: First, how is the implementation of

this childcare policy in different regions? Second,

does this policy really promote employment equity

for women? Third, what are the main challenges in

the implementation of the policy, and how can the

policy be optimized to improve its effectiveness. The

practical significance of this study lies in the fact that

as the country actively promotes the childcare policy,

an in-depth analysis of its actual implementation and

impact on women's employment will not only help to

optimize policy implementation and improve policy

targeting, but also provide data support for the

government to reduce deviations in policy

implementation. At the same time, it fills a gap in

academic research on regional differences and

industry adaptability of childcare policies. This study,

by analyzing literature reviews and searching CSSCI

core journals, government reports and policy

documents, examines the current situation of

childcare policy implementation, and conducts

comparative studies of implementation effects in

different regions. The structure of this article is as

follows: The second part reviews the relevant

literature and analyzes the theoretical background of

the childcare policy and its role in women's

employment equity. The third part summarizes the

existing research results and explores the differences

in policy implementation in different regions and

industries. The fourth part analyzes the challenges of

policy implementation, including financial support,

social perception and legal enforcement, etc. The fifth

part puts forward suggestions for optimization and

summarizes the research conclusions.

2 RESEARCH METHODS AND

PROCESSES

2.1 Research Methods and Data

Sources

The core objective of this study is to assess the

practical effect of the Guidance on Promoting the

Development of Childcare Services for Children

under 3 years of Age in promoting employment

equity for women of childbearing age, and to analyze

the implementation of this policy in different regions,

industry adaptability, legal regulation, and the impact

of financial support on it. To ensure the accuracy of

the study, this paper analyzes existing research

literature, systematically reviews domestic and

foreign empirical studies on the implementation of

childcare policies, the evaluation of policy effects,

and the impact of childcare on women's employment,

and combines data screening to find research results

that can directly support the implementation and

effect evaluation of the policy, rather than discussing

the issue of employment equity for women of

childbearing age in a general way. To ensure that the

retrieved literature is highly relevant to the research

objective, this paper conducts literature search based

on the CSSCI core journal database, China National

Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang

data, and uses keywords such as: implementation of

childcare policies; Care policy for infants under 3

years old; Employment impact for women of

childbearing age; Regional differences in childcare

policies; Policy financial support/corporate childcare

responsibility; Perform Boolean search optimization

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for family responsibility sharing, etc., narrowing the

search range to screen out high-quality and highly

relevant studies. A total of more than 180 related

papers were retrieved in the initial search, including

65 studies on the implementation of childcare

policies, 50 policy effect evaluations, 40 analyses of

financial input and legal enforcement, and 25

corporate childcare responsibilities. To ensure the

timeliness of the data, the screening scope was limited

to literature published in 2018 and later. Empirical

studies including policy implementation effect

evaluation, regional financial input comparison,

enterprise participation in childcare and legal

supervision analysis were given priority, and

literature that did not involve policy implementation

or only remained at the theoretical discussion level

was excluded. Ultimately, 15 core studies were

selected to ensure that all literature can directly

support the policy analysis.

2.2 Literature Screening Criteria

Literature screening criteria are strictly centered

around policy orientation, empirical data, and

regional adaptability. First, the research should

directly address the implementation of the Guidance

on Promoting the Development of Childcare Services

for Children under 3 years Old or include data on the

direct impact of childcare policies on women's

employment, rather than merely discussing

employment equity for women of childbearing age in

general. Secondly, priority should be given to studies

that contain quantified data on policy

implementation, such as the impact of government

financial input on policy effectiveness, the attitude of

enterprises towards support for childcare, the rate of

women returning to employment, the rate of job loss,

etc., to ensure the objectivity of policy evaluation. In

addition, studies comparing the effectiveness of

policy implementation in different regions are

included in the key screening scope to ensure that the

regional adaptability of the policy can be analyzed,

rather than based only on data at the national level.

The time frame was limited to 2018 and beyond to

ensure the timeliness of the data. In terms of research

methods, priority will be given to studies that use

quantitative or qualitative methods such as data

statistics, policy implementation assessment,

questionnaires, and case studies to support the

analysis of policy effects. The final 15 core studies

were selected, including 5 on policy implementation,

5 on policy effect evaluation, 4 on legal and financial

support, and 1 on corporate responsibility and

industrial adaptability, to ensure a multi-angle

analysis of the actual impact of the childcare policy.

3 REVIEW OF DOMESTIC

STUDIES AND RESEARCH

RESULTS

3.1 Overview of Literature Application

and Summary of Review Topics

The application of the literature is closely centered

around policy implementation, financial support,

legal regulation, and industry adaptability. In terms of

policy implementation, Li Congrong et al. (2024)

studied the spatial evolution and fiscal impact of

childcare resources in Xian provided empirical data

on the local implementation of policies, while Guo

Lin and Dong Yulian (2021) used an international

comparative approach to analyze the implementation

models of childcare policies in China and other

countries. Revealing the advantages and limitations

of Chinese policies in terms of financial support,

social acceptance, etc. In addition, the research by

Zhang Haoran and Li Yugang (2024) systematically

assesses the development trends of childcare services

for infants and toddlers aged 0-3, summarizes the

deficiencies in policy implementation, and provides

background support for policy implementation. In

addition, Hong Xiumin, Song Qiuju and Zhu Wenting

(2025), from the perspective of policy tools, explored

the significant impact of talent team building in

childcare services on policy implementation,

providing supply-side support for the sustainable

development of childcare policies.

In terms of financial support and legal

enforcement, Wang Kexin (2025) studied the

implementation of labor laws for women in the

context of the three-child policy to analyze the role of

law in promoting parenting policies, while Zhu Siyi

(2024) further explored the challenges of ensuring

fair employment for women during the period of

population policy reform. The problem of insufficient

enforcement of the childcare policy was highlighted.

Meanwhile, Dai Ruijun (2022) supplemented the

legal supervision analysis of this study by analyzing

the feasibility and limitations of the policy at the legal

level through public interest litigation cases for

women's rights. Meanwhile, Gervin et al. 's (2022)

study on public investment in children's development

and childcare services provides an international

comparative reference for understanding how

financial support affects the actual effectiveness of

childcare policies.

A Review of the Effects of Childcare Policies

285

In terms of policy effect evaluation, Qin Xufang

and Ning Yangyang (2022) explored the matching of

policy supply and demand based on the demand

preferences and willingness to pay for childcare

institutions among parents in East China and

Northeast China, while Zheng Lingping (2025)

studied the construction of a social security system

for women under the three-child policy and further

analyzed the impact of financial subsidies on policy

implementation effects. Meanwhile, Fisk et al. 's

(2025) study on Early Head Start also pointed out the

positive impact of high-quality, early care services on

the increase in women's labor participation rate.

In terms of corporate childcare responsibility and

industry adaptability, Zhang Jigang et al. (2022)

combined childcare policies with rural revitalization,

analyzed the special difficulties in policy

implementation in the central and western regions,

and suggested that policy adaptability needs to be

adjusted in tandem with local economic conditions.

Johnson and Perez (2023) put forward optimization

suggestions from the perspective of parental

participation, emphasizing the need to introduce more

feedback mechanisms for service recipients in the

process of policy formulation and implementation to

enhance policy responsiveness and accuracy.

Based on this, in combination with the policy

document "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the

Development of Childcare Services for Infants under

3 Years Old", we will focus on analyzing the

implementation of the policy, financial support and

legal supervision, explore the implementation effect

of the policy in different regions, and compare the

differences in policy implementation between

economically developed and underdeveloped

regions. At the same time, assess the responsibility of

enterprises in the policy and the adaptability of the

policy in different industries. Take the

implementation of childcare policies in Xian and a

comparative study of international childcare policies

as examples to analyze the heterogeneity of policies

at the regional level (Li et al., 2024; Guo and Dong,

2021). At the same time, in light of the current

problems such as insufficient financial support, weak

enforcement of the law, and different industry

acceptance, further explore the direction of policy

optimization. Zhu Siyi (2024) points out that the

effectiveness of policies largely depends on fiscal

input and corporate participation, while the research

by Li Chang 'and Liu Zhenxiu (2023) reveals the

problem of implicit employment discrimination in the

process of policy implementation. Together, these

studies constitute a comprehensive foundation for

evaluating the policy's impact and conducting a

systematic analysis of the role and real challenges of

childcare policies in women's employment equity.

3.2 Background of Childcare Policy

and Women's Employment

Dilemma

Existing research indicates that the impact of

childcare policies on women's employment equity is

not single. To a certain extent, it reduces the risk of

women of childbearing age leaving the workplace due

to childbirth. However, it is also restricted by factors

such as insufficient legal enforcement, unbalanced

regional development, and differences in industry

adaptability. Chu Haiqing (2023) found through

interviews that in the context of the three-child policy,

although the state has introduced employment

protection policies, enterprises still tend to choose

men or non-childbearing women when recruiting,

mainly out of concern that childbirth will lead to labor

loss. This conclusion echoes the research of Ji

Yingchun and Zheng Zhenzhen (2018), who analyzed

how the unbalanced distribution of reproductive

responsibilities affects women's career development

from a gender perspective. While policies provide

theoretical support, they point out that traditional

gender divisions of labor still exist, putting women at

a disadvantage in terms of salary, promotion, and job

stability. This also links to Nancy's (2007) theory of

gender justice, highlighting the tension between

social expectations and the implementation of

policies. In other words, even though protection is

provided at the legal level, the traditional

expectations of women's parenting responsibilities in

reality are still weakening the positive effects of

policies on women's employment equity, and the

actual situation remains pessimistic.

3.3 Regional Differences and the

Impact of Financial Input on Policy

Effects

In terms of the actual implementation of the childcare

policy, the study generally found that the

implementation effect of the childcare policy varies

greatly among different regions. Li Congrong et al.

(2024) studied the situation of childcare resources in

Xian found that the effectiveness of the childcare

policy largely depends on the financial capacity and

infrastructure of local governments. In economically

developed regions, due to greater financial support

and relatively complete childcare institutions, the

implementation effect of the policy is better. But in

less developed regions, due to limited funds and

ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science

286

resources, the implementation of the policy is more

difficult, and the situation of women's employment

equity has not improved significantly. The

comparison between Guangzhou and Xian further

confirms that under the promotion of the "Guangzhou

Women's Development Plan (2021-2030)",

Guangzhou has established a complete community

and enterprise childcare model, and the government

provides financial subsidies and enterprise incentives

in place, which has led to an improvement in women's

employment equity. But in Xian, due to limited

financial support, the number of childcare institutions

is insufficient, and their accessibility is poor, resulting

in women's career development still being affected by

the responsibility of raising children. This

comparison shows that the fairness of childcare

policies is not entirely determined by the policies

themselves but is more influenced by local economic

conditions. This local difference is consistent with the

conclusion of Guo Lin and Dong Yulian (2021)

through international comparisons, which found that

some European countries have adopted a model of

government subsidies plus corporate cooperation,

allowing women in less developed areas to enjoy

relatively equal childcare services, while China's

childcare system still mainly relies on government

financial input. This has led to a significant disparity

in policy effectiveness across regions. In addition,

Hong et al. (2025) pointed out from the perspective

of policy tools that the construction of the talent pool

for childcare services is also an important factor in

determining the effectiveness of policy

implementation, especially in resource-limited

regions such as the central and western regions, where

the shortage of talent further amplifies the problem of

insufficient financial input.

3.4 Industry Adaptability Differences

and the Mobility of Women in

Employment

In addition to regional differences, there are also

obvious imbalances in the adaptability of childcare

policies across different industries. Zhu Siyi (2024)

found that companies in high-income sectors such as

technology and finance often have the ability to

provide childcare benefits for their employees, such

as childcare subsidies or in-house childcare, which

makes it easier for women in these sectors to return to

the workplace after raising children. However, in

labor-intensive industries such as manufacturing and

retail, companies generally do not offer such support

to their employees because of the higher costs, and

female employees often face a greater risk of career

disruption after giving birth. This is in line with the

findings of Li Changan and Liu Zhenxiu (2023) and

further analyzed that although companies do not

openly discriminate against women of childbearing

age on the surface, they will indirectly screen out non-

women of childbearing age by raising assessment

standards, adjusting job requirements, etc., making

the issue of female employment equity more

prominent in certain industries. In addition, Guo Lin

and Dong Yulian (2021) also pointed out that the

current childcare policy mainly targets infants under

3 years old, but there is a serious lack of support for

children over 3 years old. This means that even if

women can continue to work in childcare institutions

until their children are 3 years old, they will still face

the problem of increased parenting burden when their

children enter the preschool stage. This further limit

their career development space. In other words, the

limited coverage of the policy has led to women still

having to constantly compromise between work and

family at different career stages.

3.5 Inadequate Enforcement of Laws

and Implicit Employment

Discrimination

Finally, from the perspective of law enforcement, Zhu

Siyi (2024) analyzed the actual implementation of the

Employment Promotion Law and the Law on the

Protection of Women's Rights and Interests and found

that although the policy explicitly prohibits gender

discrimination and stipulates that employers must not

affect recruitment due to marital or reproductive

status, there are still many ways for enterprises to

circumvent these provisions. For instance, during the

recruitment process, companies do not directly

inquire about the marriage and childbearing plans of

job seekers, but they may indirectly screen out non-

childbearing women through complex assessment

procedures, additional assessment requirements, etc.

At the same time, Li Changan and Liu Zhenxiu

(2023) also pointed out that due to the broad criteria

for judging employment discrimination in current

laws, local governments and judicial institutions lack

uniform standards when handling related disputes,

and many cases have "different judgments for the

same case", which weakens the legal protection of

fair employment for women. In addition, Dai Ruijun

(2022) further revealed the problem of high cost and

low success rate of women's rights protection through

case studies of public interest litigation for women's

rights. It also argues that the poor enforceability of

current legal provisions leads to many enterprises still

being able to circumvent legal responsibilities

A Review of the Effects of Childcare Policies

287

through "implicit standards", making it difficult to

completely eradicate discrimination against women

in the workplace. This indicates that although the law

provides a framework for employment equity, there

are still loopholes in its actual implementation, and

enterprises still have considerable room for

maneuver, which affects the actual implementation of

the childcare policy. Meanwhile, Johnson and Perez

(2023) stress that the lack of feedback mechanisms

from direct stakeholders, such as parents and

employees, in the policy-making process is also an

important reason that cannot be ignored for the

disconnection between policy implementation and

actual needs.

3.6 A Re-Understanding of the Gap

Between Institutional Design and

Reality

In conclusion, this review reveals that the childcare

policy has indeed improved gender equity in

employment to some extent, but its effect is still

constrained by multiple factors. A comparison

between Guangzhou (a first-tier city) and Xian (a new

first-tier city) shows that local fiscal capacity plays a

key role in policy implementation, and women in

developed areas are more likely to enjoy policy

dividends, while women in less developed areas still

face greater pressure in raising children and

employment. Meanwhile, the disparity in policy

support for women across different industries has

further exacerbated the situation of women of

childbearing age in the workplace. More importantly,

the lack of enforcement of the law has led to

widespread covert employment discrimination,

which has weakened the actual effectiveness of

childcare policies. Therefore, the focus of future

policy optimization should be to push the childcare

policy towards less developed regions and reduce the

employment equity gap caused by the fiscal gap;

Expand the coverage of the childcare policy not only

for infants under 3 years old, but also for preschool

children's care needs; Strengthen law enforcement

and formulate more detailed implementation rules to

reduce the space for hidden employment

discrimination. At the same time, feedback

mechanisms from stakeholders such as parents and

enterprises will be introduced to enhance the

precision and adaptability of the policy. Only in this

way can the childcare policy become a practical,

concrete, and effective tool for promoting fair

employment for women, rather than just a legal

guarantee.

4 DISCUSSION

4.1 Major Contributions of Existing

Research

The existing research provides valuable perspectives

on how childcare policies affect employment equity

for women, particularly in terms of policy

implementation, industry adaptability, and legal

protection. The greatest contribution is that they

reveal the gap between policy goals and actual

implementation, and through regional comparisons

and industry analyses, explain why policy-making

alone cannot truly address the issue of employment

equity. The comparison between Guangzhou and

Xian, for example, shows that local fiscal capacity

determines the effectiveness of childcare policies.

Women in developed regions are more likely to

benefit from policy dividends, while in regions with

insufficient fiscal resources, policy effectiveness is

greatly reduced. In terms of industry adaptability,

high-income industries such as technology and

finance can provide better childcare support for

female employees, while labor-intensive industries

such as manufacturing and retail, due to resource

constraints, have weak childcare benefits, making it

more difficult for women to return to the workplace

after giving birth. At the level of law enforcement,

existing research reveals that even though laws such

as the Employment Promotion Law and the Law on

the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests

explicitly prohibit gender discrimination at the textual

level, due to weak enforcement, enterprises still

circumvent legal requirements by setting implicit

thresholds and other means, thus making women still

face unequal challenges in actual job hunting and

employment. Overall, these studies collectively

depict the structural problem of the mismatch

between policy goals and actual effects, highlighting

the importance of every link from institutional design

to implementation.

4.2 Limitations of Existing Studies

Although existing research provides in-depth insights

into how childcare policies work, the limitations of

existing research also exist. First, most studies are

based on policy texts and case studies or small-scale

interview data, lacking the support of larger-scale

quantitative data, which makes the existing analyses

more of a partial observation. For example, while

studies have discussed the implementation of

childcare policies in different cities, there is still a

lack of nationwide comparative data, especially the

ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science

288

differences between urban and rural areas. Secondly,

the existing literature pays insufficient attention to the

role of enterprises in the implementation of policies.

Most studies have focused more on the government

and individual levels, ignoring whether enterprises

actively cooperate with the policy, such as whether

enterprises are willing to actively provide childcare

subsidies. Are government incentives sufficient for

companies to cooperate? Such key questions. In fact,

the enthusiasm of enterprises, as an important part of

the supply of childcare services, directly affects the

policy effect, but this has been discussed relatively

limited in current research. In addition, although the

issue of law enforcement has been widely pointed out,

the existing literature often lacks in-depth exploration

of how to refine the standards of law enforcement,

clarify the basis for judging implicit discrimination,

and propose practical and feasible paths for

institutional improvement, resulting in improvement

suggestions being rather macroscopic and principle-

oriented, lacking specific operability.

5 CONCLUSIONS

This study focuses on the Guidance on Promoting the

Development of childcare services for Children under

3 years old and examines the actual effectiveness and

challenges of childcare policies in promoting

employment equity for women of childbearing age.

Combined with the existing literature, a systematic

discussion was conducted from three perspectives:

policy implementation, industry adaptability, and

legal protection. The study found that although the

childcare policy has to some extent reduced the

likelihood of women of childbearing age leaving the

workforce due to childbirth, its implementation effect

is constrained by multiple factors such as local fiscal

capacity, industry characteristics and legal

enforcement, resulting in a significant gap between

policy goals and actual implementation.

At the regional level, the fairness of policies not

only depends on the policies themselves but is also

influenced by local economic conditions. In

economically developed regions such as Guangzhou,

due to higher financial input and more abundant

childcare resources, the policy has achieved better

results. However, in new first-tier cities such as Xian,

due to insufficient financial support, the number of

childcare institutions is limited, which significantly

restricts the effectiveness of the policy in promoting

fair employment for women. The lack of financial

support has directly affected the feasibility of the

policy, leaving women in less developed areas at risk

of being marginalized in the workplace due to

parenting responsibilities. Meanwhile, at the industry

level, there are also significant differences in the

adaptability of different sectors to the childcare

policy. In high-income industries such as finance and

technology, which have stronger economic

capabilities, companies are more willing to offer

childcare subsidies or internal childcare support,

making it easier for women to return to the workplace

after giving birth. However, labor-intensive

industries such as manufacturing and retail, due to the

limited profit margins of enterprises, usually do not

offer childcare benefits proactively, which further

increases the employment pressure on women in

these industries. This imbalance in the industry

structure has led to differences in the effectiveness of

childcare policies among different occupational

groups, and women in some industries still face

significant employment discrimination and career

development obstacles. At the level of law

enforcement, although policies such as the Law on the

Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women and

the Employment Promotion Law clearly stipulate that

enterprises must not affect women's job hunting and

employment due to marriage and childbearing issues,

due to the overly principle-oriented provisions and

inconsistent enforcement standards, implicit

discrimination still prevails in practice. Companies

often exclude women of childbearing age in a

disguised way by raising recruitment assessment

standards or setting up additional screening

procedures, while local law enforcement is

insufficient, making it difficult for women to

effectively protect their rights when they encounter

employment discrimination. This further undermines

the actual role of childcare policies in ensuring fair

employment for women. Therefore, relying solely on

policy provisions is not enough to ensure fair

employment for women. How to improve the

enforcement of the law, strengthen the supervision

and implementation of the policy becomes the key to

determining whether the childcare policy can really

play a role.

Based on the research results, this study suggests

that future optimization of childcare policies should

be approached from multiple aspects. First,

strengthening financial support is the key to

narrowing regional disparities and ensuring policy

fairness. The government should increase financial

input to less developed areas and raise subsidies for

childcare institutions to reduce the problem of uneven

resource distribution between urban and rural areas.

Secondly, the coverage of the policy should be further

expanded. The current childcare policy mainly targets

A Review of the Effects of Childcare Policies

289

infants and toddlers under three years old but

provides less support for children over three years

old. In the future, the policy needs to be extended to

preschool children to reduce the possibility of women

being forced to leave the workplace due to parenting

responsibilities. At the same time, it is crucial to

promote corporate responsibility. The government

can develop more targeted childcare support policies,

such as providing childcare subsidies for enterprises

in labor-intensive industries, in order to narrow the

employment equity gap between industries. In

addition, improving the legal oversight mechanism

and increasing the cost for businesses to comply with

employment equity regulations is an important way to

reduce hidden employment discrimination.

Strengthening the enforcement of the Law on the

Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women and

the Law on Employment Promotion, refining the

criteria for determining employment discrimination,

and imposing stricter penalties on enterprises that

violate the regulations will help improve the actual

implementation effect of the policy.

In summary, the childcare policy has indeed

played a positive role in promoting fair employment

for women, but due to constraints such as financial

capacity, industry adaptability and law enforcement,

the actual effect of the policy is still limited. In the

future, only by strengthening financial support,

expanding policy coverage, promoting corporate

responsibility, and improving the legal enforcement

system can we ensure that the childcare policy does

not just remain at the level of policy text, but truly

becomes an important tool for improving women's

employment equity. At the same time, future research

could further focus on the role of enterprises in policy

implementation and the impact of childcare policies

on men's sharing of family responsibilities, thereby

providing policymakers with a more comprehensive

reference to optimize policy design and promote

gender-equal employment.

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