Caring for solidarity? The intimate politics of grandmother childcare and neoliberal conservatism in urban Turkey

Abstract

The number of grandmothers who provide regular care for their grandchildren and do housework for their daughters or daughters-in-law is increasing in Turkey. While perpetuating traditional gender roles for themselves as a surrogate daughter, wife, or daughter-in-law, these women nonetheless enable younger women to distance themselves from obligatory care work at home. The sociocultural concepts of kinship ties, economic need, or love for grandchildren do not fully explain why grandmothers assume the role of caregiver for their grandchildren. Drawing on interviews with 25 grandmothers from middle-class families in urban Turkey, this article shows, first, that these women’s gendered subjectivity is formed by both habitual and intentional actions that defying the oppression and resistance duality within patriarchal Turkish society. Second, in dialogue with the scholarship on the “classic patriarchal bargain”1 and feminist analyses of neoliberal social policy, the article suggests that these grandmothers’ inarticulate desire to live in solidarity with the younger generation of women may be turned into a government instrument in the context of Turkey’s increasingly family-centered neoliberal social policy environment.

A new perspective on women’s care burden and employment in Turkey

“…This enables younger women to reduce the intra-household unpaid care burden. Can suggests in her article that these grandmothers' solidarity with their daughter or daughter-in-law can be transformed into an instrument of the governments' increasingly family-centered neoliberal social policy environment in Turkey (Can, 2019).…”

Low-Income Turkish Mothers’ Conceptions and Experiences of Family Life

“…It is unclear if internalized gender norms refrain women from seeking more father involvement as they feel pressured to fulfill the role of a perfect mother. Prior research indicates that mothers compensate for the lack of father involvement through sharing childcare with older women in the extended family ( Can, 2019 ). Future research could investigate how women negotiate and share those responsibilities and how solidarity re-shapes or reinforces family processes and structure among Turkish families.…”

Disabled Women’s Care Experiences in Turkey: Intimacy, Dependency, Independent Living

“…As normative gender roles remain a significant structuring feature of everyday life in Turkey (Can 2019) and any professional assistance has to be paid out-of-pocket, the representation of the mother as the preferred and idealised care provider acted as an interpretive anchor within each case. For Defne, her experience of paid care was defined, in part, by the absence of her mother; Melis's close reliance on her doting mother was something she regarded as problematic yet 'natural'; and for Leyla, PA disrupted normative expectations around this same relationship.…”

“…Since 2011, the state attempted to include undocumented migrants in the formal labour market. Still, many migrants continue to work without contract (Akkan & Serim 2019: 13, 14 increased participation in the labour force (Can 2019: 88) have instigated a 'break from the extended family pattern' (Kandiyoti 1987: 332), contributing to a gradual breakdown of the classical patriarchal system (Can 2019;Kandiyoti 1988). 4 Nevertheless, the 'patriarchal division of labour at home remained intact' (Can 2019: 90) and the association of women with nurturing roles persisted.…”

“…In this light,Can (2019) draws attention to the increasing role of grandmothers in caring for their grandchildren as the younger generation of women assume full-time employment.…”