This study describes and analyses the types of informal care provided in Sweden and whether it is possible to distinguish different types of carers. Data were collected in a Swedish county in 2000, by means of telephone interviews. The net sample consisted of 2,697 individuals 18–84 years old, and the response rate was 61 per cent. The results showed that there were large differences in the numbers of male and female carers when the data were divided into a typology of care categories based on different caring tasks. Women were much more likely than men to be involved at the ‘heavy end’ of caring, i.e. providing personal care in combination with a variety of other caring tasks. Men were more likely to provide some kind of practical help for a mother or a neighbour/friend. Even though the Swedish welfare state has been described as universal and characterised by an extensive system of benefits and services intended to cover the entire population, the results here indicate that informal care plays an important role and that the gender role patterns are similar to those observed in other types of welfare state. When discussing support systems it is important for social policy to develop programmes that take into account the support needs of both caregivers and care recipients, and not to see their needs in isolation from the social care system as a whole.
This study examines the role of older people in Swedish society by exploring the prevalence of their informal caregiving and volunteering and by analyzing the profiles of these contributors of unpaid work. Data were collected by means of telephone interviews in a Swedish representative survey conducted in 2005. Our analysis reveals three distinct profiles of people involved in unpaid activities. One of these consists of those involved both in informal help giving and volunteering, a group that has been labeled "super helpers" or "doers" in earlier research. It is important for social policy planners to recognize these groups of older people and better understand the dynamics of their unpaid work in order to ascertain whether they might need support as providers and to enhance their well-being. There does not seem to be any simple contradiction between the parallel existence of a universal welfare model of the Swedish kind and an extensive civil society in which older people play important roles as active citizens.
We used national surveys to study how older persons' changing household patterns influence the gender balance of caregiving in two countries with distinct household structures and cultures, Spain and Sweden. In both countries, men and women provide care equally often for their partner in couple-only households. This has become the most common household type among older persons in Spain and prevails altogether in Sweden. This challenges the traditional dominance of young or middle-aged women as primary caregivers in Spain. In Sweden, many caregivers are old themselves. We focus attention to partners as caregivers and the consequences of changing household structures for caregiving, which may be on the way to gender equality in both countries, with implications for families and for the public services.
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