This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by ARONSON, J. Articles by NEYSMITH, S. M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

"YOU'RE NOT JUST IN THERE TO DO THE WORK"

Depersonalizing Policies and the Exploitation of Home Care Workers' Labor

McMaster University

SHEILA M. NEYSMITH

University of Toronto

Community care for frail elderly people rests heavily on the work of low-status, paraprofessional home care workers. Home care workers describe their work as highly personalized caring labor that often seeps out of its formal boundaries into informal, unpaid activities. Although these activities are valued by workers, their supervisors, elderly clients, and family members, they represent uncompensated and exploited labor. Cost-cutting trends in home care management that seek to depersonalize home care labor are likely to increase its exploitative potential for paid care workers and, simultaneously, to disadvantage and jeopardize elderly home care clients and their unpaid family caregivers.

Gender & Society, Vol. 10, No. 1, 59-77 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/089124396010001005


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. Solari Professionals and Saints: How Immigrant Careworkers Negotiate Gender Identities at Work Gender Society, June 1, 2006; 20(3): 301 - 331. [Abstract] [PDF]

				S. M. Allen and D. Ciambrone Community Care for People With Disability: Blurring Boundaries Between Formal and Informal Caregivers Qual Health Res, February 1, 2003; 13(2): 207 - 226. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. W. Piercy When It Is More Than a Job: Close Relationships between Home Health Aides and Older Clients J Aging Health, August 1, 2000; 12(3): 362 - 387. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. W. Piercy and R. Blieszner Balancing Family Life: How Adult Children Link Elder-Care Responsibility to Service Utilization Journal of Applied Gerontology, December 1, 1999; 18(4): 440 - 459. [Abstract] [PDF]