Women, Work, and Caregiving: How Do These Roles Affect Women's Well-Being?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Families provide the bulk of care to the increasing numbers of community dwelling older individuals needing assistance due to functional disabilities. Women, due to traditionally accepted familial and societal roles, often bear a disproportionate share of the responsibility for this caregiving. Data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households is used to provide descriptive statistics about women who concurrently fill the roles of homemaker, labor market participant, and caregiver: Sixty percent worked 35 or more hours the previous week, while 40 percent reported spending at least 10 hours providing care to someone ill or disabled. Self-reported measures of stress for this sample of women are also reported: women who report facing the demands of multiple roles consistently report higher levels of stress. Policy implications, including a discussion of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 and its potential to provide relief to women facing multiple demands, concludes the paper.