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To grandmother's house we go? Around the bend on the “mommy track”

1993; Elsevier BV; Volume: 1; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/1068-8595(93)90020-a

1879-1557

Barbara J. Logue,

Health disparities and outcomes

This paper focuses on caregiving issues and their salience for women as the primary providers of care to elderly relatives. Assignment to caregiving roles on the basis of gender reflects cultural values and has important social, psychological, and economic implications. Advances in biomedical technology are changing the nature and duration of women's traditional responsibilities for elder care, and present trends suggest that long-term care concerns will continue to gain in prominence as the American population ages. Socialization processes and demographic factors impose greater caregiving burdens on women than on men. A resurgence of interest in family responsibility for elder care, arising out of growing public concern over rapidly rising costs, also affects women disproportionately. The greatest danger is that serial caregiving will compound and reinforce women's current disadvantages in the labor market. Policies that move toward more equitable distribution of caregiving burdens are clearly overdue.