as such they play a pivotal role in promoting substantive equality for women the availability of care services can help redress womens socioeconomic disadvantage by enhancing their ability to engage in paid work care services also contribute to the transformation of gender stereotypes by allowing women to move out of the home and into the public domain data on early childhood education and care ecec services illustrate this point across oecd countries for example coverage of ecec services for children aged years when the care burden on women is largest lags far behind coverage for children aged years