This study explores experiences of mothers in Sweden who care for their adult children suffering from severe mental illness. Using 15 interviews with mothers from 40 to 80 years old, the article examines how predominant professional knowledge and sanism constructs the mothers and their children as deviant and what counterstrategies the mothers develop as a response to these experiences of discrimination. The findings show that the mothers' experiences are characterized by endless confrontations with negative attitudes and comments that have forced them to go through painful and prolonged processes of self-accusations for not having given enough love, care, support and help in different stages of their children's life. But the mothers' experiences also reveal important aspects of changes over the life span. As the mothers are ageing, the relationship between them and their children becomes more reciprocal and the ill child may even take the role as family carer.

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This article critically explores assumptions underpinning Swedish elder care policies that the introduction of market practices in publicly funded eldercare services advances women's entrepreneurship. We argue that gendered privileges and disadvantages are being recreated on tax‐funded home care markets; furthermore, gendered inequalities intersect with ethnicity and profession in the management of small‐scale care companies' dealings with authorities governing home care services and standards for home care work. However, we find that the salience of categories depends on the context in which they emerge. While gender and profession are dominant in management, gender and ethnicity influence interactions with authorities. Only in standards for home care work do all categories simultaneously shape the business approaches of care entrepreneurs. Our analysis, based on data on size and growth of home care companies and interviews with small‐scale care entrepreneurs, suggests that regulations and practices privilege big companies and care entrepreneurs who echo the white, masculine gendering of entrepreneurship as ‘doing business' and disadvantage small‐scale entrepreneurs focusing on leading care work to produce quality care.

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Consumer choice models have been introduced in eldercare services in several Western welfare societies. Choice models in eldercare emphasise the importance of individuals’ abilities to make informed choices and therefore entail a risk for increased inequalities among older adults with care needs. In the Nordic countries, such inequality risks are in stark contrast to universal policy ambitions of equal access to care services. Care managers, who are responsible for needs assessment for eldercare services, have a central role in implementing policies and, thus, have first-hand experience of their impact on older adults’ access to care. The aim of this study was to explore care managers’ experiences of how user choice affects older adults’ access to care services in three Nordic cities: Copenhagen, Tampere, and Stockholm. These cities were purposely selected as forerunners in marketisation, with different ways of implementing choice models. Semi-structured interviews with care managers were conducted in Copenhagen, Tampere, and Stockholm and analysed thematically. The findings indicate there are difficulties related to older adults’ ability to access information needed to make informed choices, as well as limitations in choice related to available services and personal finances. Further, care managers find that older adults’ abilities to overcome these difficulties are shaped by their health, education, language skills, and assistance from relatives. In order to reduce the risk of choice models increasing the gap between older adults with different resources and capabilities, there is a need to develop accessible information, as well as models for professional guidance.