Gender Regimes in Ontario Nursing Homes: Organization, Daily Work, and Bodies

Abstract

Today more men work in the long-term care sector, but men are still in the minority. Little is known about men's experiences in care work, and the dilemmas and opportunities they face because of their gender. This article focuses on men care workers' integration into the organization and flow of nursing home work as perceived by these workers and staff members. Using a rapid ethnography method in two Ontario nursing homes, we found work organization affected interpretations of gender and race, and that workers' scope for discretion affected the integration and acceptance of men as care workers. In a nursing home with a rigid work organization and little worker discretion, women workers perceived men workers as a problem, whereas at a nursing home with a more flexible work organization that stressed relational care, both women and men workers perceived men workers as a resource in the organization.

Imagining Age-Friendly “Communities Within Communities”: Uncovering Social and Physical Barriers to Age-Friendly Transportation

“…Although Age-Friendly Community (AFC) initiatives often take a "one-size-fits-all" approach to addressing the needs of older adults (Menec et al, 2011;Syed et al, 2017), this project investigates promising practices for seniors who are diverse in gender, culture, ethnicity, income, and sexual orientation, as well as Indigenous seniors, and seniors living with disabilities or dementia (Daly et al, 2018). Short field studies or rapid ethnographies are used in each of the 12 cities, collecting data from visits with staff and seniors at organizations that provide programs and services for seniors and their caregivers, or organizations that are involved in advocacy, research, or policy pertaining to seniors (Baines & Cunningham, 2013;Daly et al, 2018;Storm, Braedley, & Chivers, 2017). The transcriptions of interviews and field notes from all sites in all cities are available to researchers using a passwordprotected database (Storm et al, 2017).…”

“…Short field studies or rapid ethnographies are used in each of the 12 cities, collecting data from visits with staff and seniors at organizations that provide programs and services for seniors and their caregivers, or organizations that are involved in advocacy, research, or policy pertaining to seniors (Baines & Cunningham, 2013;Daly et al, 2018;Storm, Braedley, & Chivers, 2017). The transcriptions of interviews and field notes from all sites in all cities are available to researchers using a passwordprotected database (Storm et al, 2017).…”

“…Rapid ethnography involves many traditional ethnographic methods such as observation of participants, interacting with participants in their environment through informal discussions, as well as semi-structured interviews with seniors, seniors' service providers, and volunteers, and policy-makers (Baines & Cunningham, 2013;Storm et al, 2017). However, unlike traditional ethnographic methods, the data collection for rapid ethnography is completed in a short amount of time using small teams of researchers (Baines & Cunningham, 2013;Armstrong & Lowndes, 2018;Storm et al, 2017).…”

“…Prior to the Ottawa field study, informal discussions and interviews were conducted with key informants from the various organizations with the goal of familiarizing participants with the researchers and research goals (Baines & Cunningham, 2013;Storm et al, 2017). Background research on the organizations, relevant policy scans, and summary reports were also done prior to the field study to provide context to the researchers participating in the data collection (Baines & Cunningham, 2013;Storm et al, 2017). Additionally, the entire research team met before the field study began to discuss the background of the sites and city, as well as to build relationships with each other and review interview and observation guides (Armstrong & Lowndes, 2018).…”

“…Over the course of the one-week field study, researchers from interdisciplinary backgrounds worked in small teams (often less than four researchers) to visit the sites that were identified in Ottawa (Baines & Cunningham, 2013;Storm et al, 2017).…”