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 Google Scholar Articles by ARONSON, J. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

WOMEN'S SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CARE OF OLD PEOPLE:

"But Who Else Is Going to Do It?"

McMaster University

Drawing on a qualitative study of women who cared for their elderly mothers, this article explores women's experiences of feeling responsible for elderly relatives. The minimal provision of public services for old people and the relative absence of brothers and husbands from family caregiving emerge as material constraints shaping women's sense of obligation. This is affirmed by ideologies and assumptions about women's association with caring and family ties that permeate subjects' accounts of their situations. Translating their sense of obligation into their lives is a contradictory process characterized by ambivalence and guilt that stifle complaint. Further exploration of the social processes that sustain the inequitable division of caring labor can contribute to interpretations, practices, and policies that benefit rather than constrain women.

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

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. A. Sulik The Balancing Act: Care Work for the Self and Coping with Breast Cancer Gender Society, December 1, 2007; 21(6): 857 - 877. [Abstract] [PDF]

				M. Silverstein, D. Gans, and F. M. Yang Intergenerational Support to Aging Parents: The Role of Norms and Needs Journal of Family Issues, August 1, 2006; 27(8): 1068 - 1084. [Abstract] [PDF]

				K. MIRCHANDANI PROTECTING THE BOUNDARY: Teleworker Insights on the Expansive Concept of "Work" Gender Society, April 1, 1998; 12(2): 168 - 187. [Abstract]

				M. ALICEA "A CHAMBERED NAUTILUS": The Contradictory Nature of Puerto Rican Women's Role in the Social Construction of a Transnational Community Gender Society, October 1, 1997; 11(5): 597 - 626. [Abstract]

				References Current Sociology, June 1, 1996; 44(2): 109 - 124.

				C. S. WHARTON FINDING TIME FOR THE "SECOND SHIFT":: The Impact of Flexible Work Schedules on Women's Double Days Gender Society, June 1, 1994; 8(2): 189 - 205. [Abstract]