[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 (MAs) remains the primary care solution for young children before the age of 3 and their schooling. The INSEE employment survey has 390,000 AM, 80% of whom are employees of the individual employer. Their average net monthly remuneration is 1,233 euros, according to the same survey.
This profession remains essentially female (more than 97%), even if official texts refer to it in the masculine form – which we will not do here. It is crossed by paradoxes close to those of other female professions considered low-skilled (see the contribution by Séverine Lemière and Rachel Silvera, “Recognizing work to establish 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, by allowing parents, and especially mothers, to remain employed.
The PA profession, like the entire early childhood sector, should thus constitute a pillar of social investment policies (Clément Carbonnier and Bruno Palier, 2022). However, this employment is not recognized as high as the challenges, and is not the subject of a real comprehensive and coherent public policy, or at most successive and occasional adjustments to reception conditions or remuneration.
The fact that it is women who carry out these tasks, moreover in their own homes and with very young children – too often considered the prerogative of women – undoubtedly explains the relative ignorance and poor assessment of the conditions of The employment of PAs, their workload and their remuneration, sometimes fantasized, but which remains modest and precarious.
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