Caring for the young and the elder: An intersectional assessment of institutional care provision in Austria and Turkey.

While some public policies directly aim at gender equality (e.g., gender policy agencies, gender budgeting), most policies are rather implicit in their gendered effects. This paper is located at the intersection of two theory strands — social reproduction theory and state theory — and builds on the following two assumptions: (1) Societies depend on the reproductive labor of women for their existence and survival and (2) the nation state plays a crucial role in organizing reproductive labor relations through its policies, institutions, norms, and discourses. Against this theoretical backdrop, the current paper analyses comparatively the institutional organization of social reproduction in Austria and Turkey in two selected policy areas: childcare and eldercare. By analyzing the political and institutional framework against which (institutional and familial) childcare and eldercare arrangements unfold in Austria and Turkey, this paper explores public care provision to young (0-5) and elder population (+65) in both countries. Both Austria and Turkey demonstrate a social reproduction regime that can be characterized as conservative-patriarchal where caring for the young and elder remains within the responsibility of each family. Yet, Austria displays a comparatively high degree of institutionalization with regard to public care provision especially to children whereas in Turkey such measures are dire. In the lack of sufficient public infrastructure, both countries tend to outsource the task of eldercare to migrant care workers from East Europa (for Austria) and Turkic states (for Turkey). Based on these initial observations, the paper assesses existing policies with regard to their impact on gender equality in Austria and Turkey from an intersectional perspective and finishes with a prognosis against the broader context of growing anti-feminist sentiments in Europe further buttressed by anti-Muslim racism in Austria and Islamic-religious conservatism in Turkey.