Women as Family Caregivers:

Abstract

Informal elder care is typically a women's issue. Eldercare problems frequently lead to bumout because of increasing longevity, advanced medical technology, changes in family life, gender role expectations and nature of formal caregiving services available (difficult to access, limited and expensive). Ultimately caregiver burnout is a result of culture lag, a lack of fit between changes in the material culture and conditions of life, and the nonmaterial aspects of culture (values, norms, etc.). To assist family caregivers both govemment and business must change family care and health care policies.F i e g a n Alford-Cooper is affiliated with Social Sciences at the Long Island

Exploring the recruitment of men into the nursing profession in the United Kingdom

“…The perceived ‘feminine’ requirements of the job—synonyms for nurse include take care of, minister to, look after, caregiver and, more colloquially, ‘angel’—correspond to the stereotype of women as caring, empathetic and nurturing to which Nightingale subscribed. This stereotype is so pervasive that women have often been unable to refuse to carry out caring roles without feeling guilty (Alford‐Cooper, 1993), and it is diametrically opposed to that of men as tough, unemotional and unsuited to caregiving, particularly in relation to children, for which task men are seen as inept (Sunderland, 2000). There has, without doubt, been significant progress in challenging these gendered assumptions and women have greater agency than ever before to enter into professions previously thought of as men‐only spaces—the frontline of the armed forces, for example.…”