Womens Roles As Natural Carers example essay topic

Caring is Culturally Defined As Being natural For Women (Finch And Groves, 1983). Critically Disc An increasing ageing population has led to a greater emphasis on the role of informal carers in providing support for older and disabled people (Twigg: 1996). So what is caring Cancian et al (2000) describe care giving as feelings of affection and responsibility combined with actions that provide responsively for an individuals personal needs or well being. A carer is anyone, irrespective of age, whose life is in some way restricted because of the need to take responsibility for the care of a person who has mental health problems, learning disabilities, is physically disabled or whose health is impaired by sickness or who is elderly and frail (Cancian et al 2000). Britain has an estimated 5.7 million carers and one in six households contains a carer. The numbers of carers providing support for more than 20 or more hours every week has increased from 1.5 million to 1.7 million since 1990.

In the Northwest 17% of adults - the highest proportion in the UK are carers (General Household Survey: 1995). It is estimated that there are 51,000 young people under the age of 18 who are carers. Accurate figures are difficult to obtain due to the hidden nature of caring. The average age for becoming a carer is between 45 to 64 (Travers: 1996).

Higher proportions of women (14%) than men (11%) are carers. Family, friends and relatives are the UKs 5.7 million carers who provide most health and community care. Social Services and the NHS rely on carers willingness and ability to provide care. This care is worth an estimated 34 billion per year (General Household Survey: 1995). This essay will discuss arguments for and against women carers who are traditionally seen as natural carers in bot formal and informal sectors. A general overview of caring will be taken and arguments will be from both formal and informal sectors of caring.

The arguments will be supported through studies that highlight explanations and evidence for women carers. In contrast, a discussion about men as caregivers and why they are the forgotten carers will be emphasised. In addition, evidence for men as caregivers and if apathy towards men carers aggravates womens roles as natural carers will also be discussed. In conclusion to this essay, suggestions about how gender inequality can be reduced in caregiving will be analysed. Caring is closely linked to gender.

Consistent finding on family research suggests that vast majority of carers for friends and relatives with chronic disabilities are women. Despite changes in society over the past few decades, women still do most of the unpaid and paid caregiving and their feelings and actions of care are naturally associated with them (Lee: 1998). Cancian et al (2000) explains the naturalness of women carers with two explanations: biological and social. The biological explanation suggests that the sex differences and deep seated psychological differences that develop in early childhood between men and women explain why women are culturally seen as natural carers. Women have the hormones or instincts to provide emotional and physical care, whilst men have the hormones or instincts to provide good economical support within the family. Marks (1997) also supports this argument by suggesting that men have a two-fold role within the family.

Firstly they provide the resources needed to make the home a safer place and secondly a males task in later stage of babys development is to introduce the baby to the outside world and help the mother and infant to separate. However the explanation by Marks (1997) is of a patronising nature, as she does not appreciate womens efforts to shift the patriarchal structures of caregiving especially after industrialisation. The social explanation by Cancian (2000) suggests that cultural beliefs and economic opportunities shape how carers are perceived by society. Both men and women would focus on caring rather than focusing on alternate activities if caring was not devalued by society and if men carers were seen as a real man and women carers as a good woman by the society (Cancian et al: 2000, Walker: 1992).

In contrast, Jones (1994) suggests that caring is socially constructed activity which is connected to women's biology. Women are exploited as unpaid carers of children, dependants and male partners and therefore they are excluded from power and authority in the public domain. This social justification is found in essentialist arguments about natural, biological and functions of women. The patriarchal oppression has also led women to do majority of caring in both inside and outside the family (Jones 1994).

In contrast to Cancian (2000) explanations for women as natural carers, Finley (1989) described four explanatory models for why it is natural for women to do the majority of caring. The time available hypothesis suggests that the competing roles and time demands, restrict the amount of time that is available for caring. The external resources hypothesis predicts that assets achieved externally i.e. education, occupation and income determine the power dynamics within the family. On the other side of the spectrum, the gender role socialisation suggests that gender role attitudes learned in the socialisation process influence the gender division in caring. The specialisation of tasks suggests that women and men perform different but complimentary tasks to maximise the well being of the family (Finley: 1989). The research conducted by Finley (1989) explored if the four models were adequate in explaining why women are more likely to be involved in caregiving.

The results were profound. The data reveals that neither the external hypothesis nor the time available hypothesis accounts for the gender differences in caregiving. In terms of task specialisation, Finley (1989) concludes that men are do not specialise in certain types of tasks and females are more likely than males to provide help. The study also concludes that gender socialisation is the best explanation for why women are seen as natural carers. Heenan (2000) who conducted a study on women as informal carers in Northern Ireland, more than a decade later supported Finley conclusion. The results were unchanged and therefore shows the patriarchal nature of caring.

The study acknowledged that majority of research conducted on women carers is quantitative and is therefore limited. Heenan (2000) conducted a qualitative study to explore the intrinsic reasons for why women do majority of caregiving. The finding suggested that the women who were interviewed perceived caring as natural and unquestionable. Caring is dependable on a set of cultural expectations and norms and the acceptance of a caring role is often related to complicated social expectations and obligations.

This is supported by Chamberlayne et al (1997) who concludes, that women are caught up in the complexities of familial relationships, a web of hidden gendered pressures concerning conflicting ties of obligation and affection. The women interviewed also believed that they were returning the help they were given by their relatives and that caring is part and parcel of marrying a farmer (Heenan: 2000). The women felt that being seen as a natural carer was a vicious circle and they could not relate to the description of their role. They were therefore socialise d into the thought that caring was something that is not thought about or analysed as a distinctive part of their lives and being a carer was meaningless. Finch and Mason (1993) who noted giving and receiving care as unremarkable supported this notion. Cancian (2000) also suggests that the devaluation of care becomes institutionalised and it persists in the routine roles and practices that contemporary organisations inherit and repeat.

Parson (1967) theory suggests that norms are consensual. People agree to the norms to avoid a disordered society. Functionalists also believe that the process of socialisation reproduces successful and ordered individuals to reproduce a ordered society (Parsons: 1967). However, the study by Heenan (2000), fails to specify how the men in the family see the patriarchal nature of caregiving, which would have given an unbiased overview of why women are seen as natural carers from a males perspective. Important criticisms of the above arguments emerged during the 1990's, which suggested that, substantially more men were involved in caring than previously thought. Men are caring out a wide range of caring roles involving many hours per week (Fisher: 1994).

Evidence suggests that despite women being the predominant carers, both men and women have an equal chance of being a carer in a spousal relationship. Therefore in the selection of the carer gender differences may be outweighed by the presence of a spouse (Twigg: 1994). However, MacDougall (1997) suggests that women are less likely to be self concerned when someone is in need whilst men are less likely to be responsive to someone elses need. However, more research is needed on the nature of male caregivers.

Despite the explanations and evidence for and against women as natural carers, evidence suggests that there are a majority of men who are also involved in both aspects for caregiving. The theory highlighted above can be challenged with subsequent research into male caregivers. This part of the essay will provide evidence for why men are seen as the forgotten carers and if apathy towards men carers exaggerates the statement made by Finch and Groves (1983). Men are changing, redefining and reinventing themselves. Men are increasing in numbers within the caring professions most notably nursing and individual men have demonstrated these caring behaviours through child care and by having closer relationships with their children (Sabo et al: 1995). Perkins et al (1993) and Squires (1995) have found that men are entering nursing often at a similar age as women and their desire to care for others was found to be a recurrent theme as well as job security, empowerment and power as a professional.

According to Sabo et al (1995) men remain the forgotten carers because their considerable contribution to care often go unrecognised and there are three assumptions to support why men are the forgotten carers. Firstly men are unlikely to be primary caregivers, secondly older men receive more support from formal and voluntary services than women carers do and thirdly when men do engage in a caregiving role they are more likely to obtain informal support from others than women (Sabo et al: 1995). The traditional masculine identity also continues to possess the modern man. This identity is found in oppressive practises that affect women, gay men and Black men. Within nursing, traditional masculine men are achieving positions of power in ever increasing numbers and it is not unreasonable to suggest that these men have tended to suppress their caring instincts in order to maintain their traditional masculine roles (Davies: 1995). Chodorow (1978) also supports this argument and suggests that men learn work values through gender socialisation by becoming separate, controlling feelings and to valuing rationality.

Men have the ability to care however they need to be shown how. Sexism, racism and homophobia need to be continually challenged if caring is to achieve any authenticity (Davies: 1995). To conclude women are still seen as natural carers due to the norms and acceptable behaviours set by the society. Women face the burden of caring in both formal and informal sectors, due to the ageing population and the socialisation process, which see caring as natural for women.

Walker (1992) suggests that the predominance of women carers has been traditionally explained at an individual level and gender equity has been ignored. Walker (1992) & Jones (1994) also suggests that the naturalness of the arrangement of women carers have been defended by the assumptions that women have closer emotional ties to family members and caring is central to womens perceptions of themselves as good women. However men are not far behind. They too are involved in both formal and informal caring, but their efforts are not widely acknowledged by the society, government or the NHS who rely so heavily on informal carers to provide majority of the care.

More research is also needed in the status of male caregivers and how caregiving differs between the two sexes (Sabo et al: 1995). Cancian (2000) suggest four ways to lessen the gender inequality between carers: to build recognition of the value of caregiving, support and complement family caregiving with a system of social care, reward paid and unpaid caregiving on the same levels as other productive work and other duties of citizenship and to create gender equality in opportunities and obligations to care. Hooyman & Gonyea (1995) also suggest that validation of womens experiences as caregivers, interconnections among womens multiple roles and womens empowerment within and outside the family are required to bridge the inequality gap.

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