Annie Dussuet

Female Labour Market Integration in the City of Nantes and Care Policies for Older People: The French Puzzle

This chapter highlights the connections between care policies for older people and employment policies, and the consequences for women’s integration into the labour market. It demonstrates how an ageing population leads the public actors to promote and develop new jobs to answer the needs of the labour market, in particular for women. By providing employment opportunities for women, local welfare policies for older people meet employment policies. In France, several different levels of government participate in welfare policy making, which makes it a complex puzzle. Furthermore, welfare policy for older people is divided into gerontological and geriatric policies. The complexity of these vertical and horizontal governance structures impacts on local authority actions and decisions taken in the city of Nantes.