The Moral Economy of Care: How Paid and Unpaid Work Shape Attitudes toward Care across Europe

Despite growing recognition of care as a cornerstone of social policy, the determinants of public attitudes toward care remain insufficiently understood. Building on feminist political economy debates about the devaluation and invisibility of care, this study examines how different forms of engagement in care, both paid and unpaid, shape individuals’ attitudes toward care-related social policies. While existing research highlights gender norms and unpaid care responsibilities as key determinants of welfare attitudes, it has largely overlooked how experiences in paid work and the social value attached to occupations influence views on care and equality. Drawing on data from Round 11 of the European Social Survey (2023) combined with Newlands and Lutz’s (2024)occupational social value index, this study examines how both unpaid care involvement and occupational social value influence individuals’ support for egalitarian care policies. Using multilevel regression models, it tests whether engagement in unpaid care and employment in socially valuable occupations are associated with stronger support for gender-equal and redistributive care measures. By linking the moral economy of work to the politics of care, the paper offers new insights into how recognition and lived experience of care shape welfare attitudes in contemporary Europe.