Gender mainstreaming and collaborative public management during COVID-19: a case study of national machineries for gender equality and care infrastructure in Argentina

Women’s movements in Latin America have been at the forefront of demanding action to redress socio-economic inequalities, including the spatial manifestation and reproduction of these inequalities in poor neighbourhoods. The feminist struggle throughout Latin America is the result of a long tradition of critical thinking and action which has delivered electoral impacts and the transformation of public policy agendas over recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic helped to give further traction and legitimacy to many of these movements as the care crisis was revealed. This chapter describes how the Government of Argentina has adopted an approach to stimulus spending that recognises gender inequality and seeks to deliver care infrastructure as part of the pandemic response. In particular, it examines gender mainstreaming and associated collaborative approaches to public management oriented towards both analysing gender inequalities as well as designing specific economic subsidies and care infrastructure programs that recognise the crippling effect of these inequalities.