Based on the hypothesis that in order to
redistribute care labor it is necessary to
know and work on the production of
gender subjectivities, this study aims to
explore the self-definition of women as
caregivers and the heterodefinition of
males (parents) in relation to child care.
A discourse analysis of 16 in-depth
interviews with montevidean women
who constitute single-parent female
households with children aged 6 years
and younger
was performed. Different discursive
mechanisms that show gender
subjectivities in care were detected.
There are argumentative discourses
that reproduce a logic that places men
as economic providers exempted from
care and domestic work, and women as
unquestionable caregivers. The
discourses are significantly different
among women of medium- high and
low socioeconomic levels. The article
tries to advance in the knowledge of
gender relations around child care in
order to have elements to work from the
institutions and the public policies that
seek the transformation of sexual
division of labor, co-responsibility and
redistribution of care labor in Uruguay.