“People often listen politely to ideas about Caring Democracy and then dismiss them because they believe that there is no way to get there from here. Doucet and Moss demonstrate that, starting from existing policies and thinking about the requirements of care – relationality, responsiveness and responsibility – it is possible to craft and implement public policies to create caring democracies, caring economies and a caring world. Their ‘bold, yet modest proposal’ is indeed a way to create a transformed world in which the economy is reorganised so that there can be time and space for everyone to care for everyone and everything of importance. Because bold action is, as they insist, the only way forward in this time of polycrisis. These proposals deserve to be widely read, discussed and implemented by everyone committed to democracy and to the health of the planet.” Joan C. Tronto, University of Minnesota (Emerita)

“Doucet and Moss challenge us to think differently about care: how care is valued, provided and received. At a time of care crisis globally, this book is greatly needed. Written with wisdom and years of policy experience behind them, Doucet and Moss provide a text that is a must-read for all who are interested in the public and private provision of care.” Marian Baird, University of Sydney

“Demonstrating welfare, policy and temporal imagination, Doucet and Moss creatively propose a world organised around an ethic of care. A ‘real utopia’ is accessibly discussed. Inclusive ideas for extending ‘care leaves’ and mechanisms to support ‘care time’, built on seeds of present policies, are doable. Their welcome proposal can ultimately and ambitiously contribute towards transforming capitalism into a care economy. This is a must-read.” Mary P Murphy, Maynooth University

★ A joint work by Andrea Doucet, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Women & Gender Studies at Brock University, PhD in Social and Political Science from the University of Cambridge, former Chair of the Canadian Network on Gender, Work and Care, and a leading expert on care and work–life balance, together with Peter Moss, Emeritus Professor of Early Childhood Education at University College London!
★ Endorsed by renowned professors from universities including the University of Minnesota and the University of Sydney, all of whom are authoritative scholars in the fields of care and social policy.
★ Directly addresses the core challenges of the global care crisis, drawing on the context of multiple intersecting societal crises to propose a comprehensive, systemic solution for building a caring society.

Available Open Access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.

What if care was at the heart of how we organise our societies and economies? This timely book explores how care leave policies can help build and sustain caring democracies, economies and worlds.
Bringing together international research and policy analysis – and inspired by the work of Joan Tronto and other leading care thinkers – Care Leaves and Care Time for All offers a bold, yet modest, proposal for transforming care leave policies. It reimagines paid care leaves as universal social entitlements across the life course providing care time for children and elders, for self and others, and for our social and ecological worlds.
Amid growing care crises and other interconnected socio-economic and environmental crises, this book issues an urgent call for a ‘global political awakening’ – one that centres and supports care giving, care receiving and care time for all.

Andrea Doucet
Andrea Doucet is a Canadian social scientist and writer, an interdisciplinary scholar and qualitative researcher, widely recognized as an “authority on care and work–life balance.” She holds the position of Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology and the Centre for Women & Gender Studies at Brock University, having previously served as the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Work, and Care (2011–2025). She is also an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Social Research, University College London, and a part-time Professor of Sociology at Carleton University and the University of Victoria.
Her research integrates critical sociology, feminist philosophy, feminist methodology and epistemology, political and social theory, as well as ecological theory and philosophy. She is a founding member of Brock’s Institute for Social Justice and a faculty member of its Social Justice and Equity Research Program. She supervises graduate students in the fields of critical sociology and social justice and equity studies.
All of her work, in various forms, revolves around the multiple dimensions of care—ranging from everyday practices and activities, to care policies and services; the interconnections between paid work and unpaid care work; the temporal dimensions of care; care as a methodological and epistemological framework; ethics and justice in care; and the reciprocal relationships between human and ecological care and being cared for. Much of her writing, research, and mentoring focuses on rethinking what care entails across different contexts, how care and care work can be measured, the relationship between care and human subjectivity, and what inclusive and integrative care/work policies might look like for diverse populations, families, and communities.
Andrea frequently advises national governments and domestic and international organizations on issues related to care, and she also writes opinion pieces and essays for non-academic audiences. She co-coordinates the International Network for Leave Policies and Research—a global think tank comprising social policy experts from over 50 countries; serves as Project Director and Principal Investigator for the SSHRC-funded collaborative project “Reimagining Care/Work Policy”; and directs the Research Studio on Narrative, Visual, and Digital Methods.
Doucet earned a BA in Political Theory from York University in Toronto and an MA in International Development Studies from Carleton University. She completed her PhD in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge in 1995. From 1995 to 1996, she held postdoctoral and teaching positions at the University of Cambridge. Between 1995 and 1998, she was Assistant Professor of Sociology at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. From 1998 to 2011, she taught as a Professor of Sociology at Carleton University.
Since 2011, she has been a Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at Brock University. Also since 2011, she has held the Canada Research Chair in Gender, Work, and Care.

Peter Moss
Emeritus Professor of Early Childhood Education at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education.
His research and publications span a wide range of topics, including early childhood education and care, the interface between early childhood education and compulsory schooling, the intersections of employment, care, and gender, and educational democracy. Many of his studies have a transnational focus; he has led both the European Commission’s Childcare Network and the International Network for Parental Leave, which examines ways to reconcile work and family responsibilities. From 2005 to 2016, he co-edited, with Gunilla Dahlberg, the “Challenging Early Childhood Education” series, designed to question “the dominant discourse surrounding early childhood education and to propose alternative narratives for this multifaceted field.”
His books include Beyond Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care (co-authored with Gunilla Dahlberg and Alan Penn), Ethics and Politics in Early Childhood Education (co-authored with Gunilla Dahlberg), Radical Education and the Public School (co-authored with Michael Fielding), and Transformation and True Utopia in Early Childhood Education. In collaboration with the Reggio Emilia Educational Authority, he published an English-language edition of Loris Malaguzzi’s writings, titled Loris Malaguzzi and the Schools of Reggio Emilia: Selected Writings and Speeches, 1945–1993, which appeared in 2016.

Introduction: ‘Creating Time and Space for Care’

1. Concepts: Care, Care Time, Caring Democracies, Caring Economies, and Caring Worlds
2. Contexts: Care Crises and a Polycrisis
3. Care Leave Policies Across Time: A Brief and Selective Overview
4. A Bold, Yet Modest Proposal: Care Leaves and Care Time for All
5. Care Entitlements: Imagining Caring Democracies, Economies, and Worlds

Conclusion: ‘We Need a Global Political Awakening’