The gender perspective in the opinions and discourse of women about caregiving.

Inmaculada Lancharro Tavero,Almudena Arroyo Rodríguez,Isabel María Calvo Cabrera,Rocío Romero Serrano,Eugenia Gil García,Juana Macías Seda

doi:10.1590/s1980-220x2017009403370

Inmaculada Lancharro Tavero, Almudena Arroyo Rodríguez + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220x2017009403370

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Abstract

To investigate the meanings given by women caregivers to their care practices and to analyze the relationship between such practices and their work history. This was a phenomenological qualitative cohort study conducted in Seville, Spain, with family caregivers. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and submitted to content analysis, using Atlas-ti GmbH software version 5.0®. The following categories emerged: caregiving history and work history, and the meaning of care in their lives. Twenty caregivers participated in the study. Women caregivers told stories of wide-ranging care, including several individuals in their family at different moments. They performed different forms of care, encompassing physical and social dimensions. Their discourse expressed the contradiction between their caregiving role and entering and/or maintaining their place in the labor market. The women expressed a concept of comprehensive care that includes responsibility, availability, and companionship, as well as emotional states, which greatly impact health. They tailored their participation in the labor market according to their family's care needs. Thus, the gender perspective must be incorporated by health care providers who work with the health of caregivers.

Highlights

In contemporary society, there has been growing interest in the topic of caregiving, and women continue being the main caregivers[1]
Notes were taken during the interviews by the main investigator, who holds degrees in nursing and anthropology and has experience with qualitative research from the gender perspective, and who presented no conflict of interests.The aim of the interview’s guiding question was to learn about the caregivers’ history and relate it with the labor market experience and the impacts on their personal lives
The following central categories emerged from the analysis of the women’s interviews: Category 1 – Caregiving history and work history: Includes how women take on caregiving roles for different family members, since childhood, which affects how their lives unfold

Summary

Introduction

There has been growing interest in the topic of caregiving, and women continue being the main caregivers[1]. Interest in gender issues has grown in recent decades. Such interest has emerged outside the scope of the health sciences, which are mostly concerned with biology, i.e., aspects related to sex, not gender. In the health sector, understanding the causes of gender inequality is no simple task, because the interpretative analysis is not the most frequently used in research[3,4]. In Spain, the Act of Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Dependent Persons[5] and in the province of Andalusia, Decree 137/2002, that establishes the policy Support to Andalusian Families[6], which targets caregivers, especially women, as receivers of healthcare services. Experts claim that these forms of help are not enough and can contribute to increasing inequalities[7]

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