Abstract
The Compassionate Care Benefit was implemented in Canada in 2004 to support employed informal caregivers, the majority of which we know are women given the gendered nature of caregiving. In order to examine how this policy might evolve over time, we examine the evolution of a similar employment insurance program, Canada’s Maternity Leave Benefit. National media articles were reviewed (n = 2,698) and, based on explicit criteria, were analyzed using content analysis. Through the application of Kingdon’s policy agenda-setting framework, the results define key recommendations for the Compassionate Care Benefit, as informed by the developmental trajectory of the Maternity Leave Benefit. Recommendations for revising the Compassionate Care Benefit are made.
Highlights
Research about Canada’s Maternity Leave Benefit (MLB) has been undertaken throughout the course of its evolution, with the purpose of informing better policies for women managing the dual roles and responsibilities of paid employment and parenthood [1]
The focus of this paper is to examine the development and evolution of the MLB in Canada, using Kingdon’s agenda-setting framework, in order to understand how policy windows open to allow for the implementation of change [6]
The content analysis of MLB news media generated two layers of data: (1) an understanding of how the MLB evolved in Canada, as well as; (2) an understanding of what types of channels and pressures generated the opening of policy windows and the consequent evolution of the MLB
Summary
Research about Canada’s Maternity Leave Benefit (MLB) has been undertaken throughout the course of its evolution, with the purpose of informing better policies for women managing the dual roles and responsibilities of paid employment and parenthood [1]. A comparable program, entitled the Compassionate Care Benefit (CCB), has been developed in Canada for the purpose of supporting employees to provide care for family members and friends at end-of-life. Informal labour in the form of family caregiving is gendered; greater than 2/3 of all of Canada’s informal caregivers are women, typically those between the ages of 45 and 60 [4]. The explanation for this gender imbalance is largely due to persistent gendered expectations that women assume domestic duties, which includes caring for ill family members, compounded with gendered beliefs that women are inherently better at and are more suited to caregiving than men.
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