This article is based on research conducted as part on the UNRISD Program on Gender and Social Policy in Developing Countries. The emphasis on the “primary caregiver” rather than the mother or even guardian was a small but important shift. As Sainsbury and others have shown, the basis of welfare entitlements is a crucial aspect of welfare states. Entitlements that privilege the head of household tend to undermine women’s independent access to benefits. On the other hand, emphasis on motherhood can equally narrow women’s access to benefits by imposing moral regulation on women. In the South African case, the emphasis on the primary caregiver recognizes the work of childcare regardless of who performs it – an important factor in a context in which care giving is the responsibility of aunts and grandparents.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265832691_Turning_Gender_Rights_into_Entitlements_Women_and_Welfare_Provision_in_Postapartheid_South_Africa