[Comment travaillent les assistantes maternelles ? Geneviève Cresson est sociologue, retraitée, ancienne professeure à l’université de Lille et au Centre lillois d’études et de recherches sociologiques et économiques (Clersé). Ses travaux concernent la famille, la santé, la petite enfance et le genre ainsi que leurs articulations. François-Xavier Devetter est chercheur au Clersé (université de Lille) et à l’Institut de recherches économiques et sociales (IRES). Ses travaux de recherche portent sur le temps de travail et les emplois à bas salaire, tout particulièrement les agentes et agents d’entretien, les aides à domicile et les assistantes maternelles agréées. Il a publié récemment Aide à domicile, un métier en souffrance. Sortir de l’impasse, avec Annie Dussuet et Emmanuelle Puissant, aux Editions de l’Atelier (2023). Julie Lazès est enseignante-chercheuse à l’IMT Nord Europe et au Clersé. Elle travaille sur les usages numériques et leurs impacts sur des dynamiques territoriales (activité de communes insulaires) ou sur des conditions de travail et d’emploi (assistantes maternelles).]

In our country, the use of childminders (MA) remains the primary care solution for small children before the age of three and before they start school. The INSEE employment survey employs 390,000 AM, 80% of whom are employees of the respective employer. According to the same survey, their average monthly net salary is 1,233 euros.

This profession remains essentially female (more than 97%), even if it is mentioned in the male form in official texts – which we will not discuss here. It is riddled with paradoxes similar to those of other women’s jobs that are considered low-skilled (see the post by Severine Lemière and Rachel Silvera“Recognition of work to achieve equal pay for women and men: the case of midwives”, The world of January 8): It is essential for the proper development of the child and for the proper functioning of the economy, since it allows parents, and especially mothers, to remain employed.

The PA profession, like the entire early childhood sector, should therefore represent a pillar of social investment policy (Clément Carbonnier and Bruno Palier, 2022). However, this employment is not seen as equal to the challenges and is not the subject of a truly comprehensive and coherent public policy or, at most, gradual and occasional adjustments to reception conditions or remuneration.

The fact that it is women who perform these tasks, at home and with very young children – which is too often seen as the prerogative of women – undoubtedly explains the relative ignorance and poor assessment of PAs’ employment conditions and their workload their remuneration, which is sometimes fantasized but remains modest and precarious.

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