РефератыИностранный языкCaCaringis Culturally Defined As Being natural For

Caringis Culturally Defined As Being natural For

Caring?is Culturally Defined As Being ?natural? For Women? (Finch And Groves, 1983). Critically Disc Essay, Research Paper


An increasing ageing population has led to a greater


emphasis on the role of informal carers in providing support for older and


disabled people (Twigg: 1996).? So what


is caring?? Cancian et al (2000)


describe care giving as feelings of affection and responsibility combined with


actions that provide responsively for an individuals personal needs or well


being.? A carer is anyone, irrespective


of age, whose life is in some way restricted because of the need to take


responsibility for the care of a person who has mental health problems, learning


disabilities, is physically disabled or whose health is impaired by sickness or


who is elderly and frail (Cancian et al 2000).?


Britain has an estimated 5.7 million carers and one in six


households contains a carer.? The


numbers of carers providing support for more than 20 or more hours every week


has increased from 1.5 million to 1.7 million since 1990.? In the Northwest 17% of adults – the highest


proportion in the UK ? are carers (General Household Survey: 1995).? It is estimated that there are 51,000 young


people under the age of 18 who are carers.?


Accurate figures are difficult to obtain due to the hidden nature of


caring.? The average age for becoming a


carer is between 45 to 64 (Travers: 1996).?


Higher proportions of women (14%) than men (11%) are carers.? Family, friends and relatives are the UK?s


5.7 million carers who provide most health and community care. Social Services


and the NHS rely on carer?s willingness and ability to provide care. This care


is worth an estimated £34 billion per year (General Household Survey: 1995).? This essay will discuss arguments for and against women


carers who are traditionally seen as ?natural? carers in both formal and


informal sectors.? A general overview of


caring will be taken and arguments will be from both formal and informal


sectors of caring.? The arguments will


be supported through studies that highlight explanations and evidence for women


carers.? In contrast, a discussion about


men as caregivers and why they are the ?forgotten carers? will be


emphasised.? In addition, evidence for


men as caregivers and if apathy towards men carers aggravates women?s roles as


?natural? carers will also be discussed.?


In conclusion to this essay, suggestions about how gender inequality can


be reduced in caregiving will be analysed. Caring is closely linked to gender.? Consistent finding on family research


suggests that vast majority of carers for friends and relatives with chronic


disabilities are women.? Despite changes


in society over the past few decades, women still do most of the unpaid and


paid caregiving and their feelings and actions of care are naturally associated


with them (Lee: 1998).? Cancian et al (2000) explains the ?naturalness? of women


carers with two explanations: biological and social.? The biological explanation suggests that the sex differences and


deep seated psychological differences that develop in early childhood between


men and women explain why women are culturally seen as?? ?natural? carers.? Women have the hormones or instincts to provide emotional and


physical care, whilst men have the hormones or instincts to provide good


economical support within the family.?


Marks (1997) also supports this argument by suggesting that men have a


two-fold role within the family.?


Firstly they provide the resources needed to make the home a safer place


and secondly a male?s task in later stage of baby?s development is to introduce


the baby to the outside world and help the mother and infant to separate.? However the explanation by Marks (1997) is


of a patronising nature, as she does not appreciate women?s efforts to shift


the patriarchal structures of caregiving especially after


industrialisation.? The social explanation by Cancian (2000) suggests that


cultural beliefs and economic opportunities shape how carers are perceived by


society.? Both men and women would focus


on caring rather than focusing on alternate activities if caring was not


devalued by society and if men carers were seen as a ?real man? and women


carers as a ?good woman? by the society (Cancian et al: 2000, Walker: 1992).? In contrast, Jones (1994) suggests that


caring is socially constructed activity which is connected to women? s


biology.? Women are exploited as unpaid


carers of children, dependants and male partners and therefore they are


excluded from power and authority in the public domain.? This social justification is found in


essentialist arguments about natural, biological and functions of women.? The patriarchal oppression has also led women


to do majority of caring in both inside and outside the family (Jones 1994). ?In contrast to Cancian?s (2000) explanations for women as


natural carers, Finley (1989) described four explanatory models for why it is


?natural? for women to do the majority of caring.? The time available hypothesis suggests that the competing roles


and time demands, restrict the amount of time that is available for caring. The


external resources hypothesis predicts that assets achieved externally i.e.


education, occupation and income determine the power dynamics within the


family.? On the other side of the


spectrum, the gender role socialisation suggests that gender role attitudes


learned in the socialisation process influence the gender division in


caring.? The specialisation of tasks


suggests that women and men perform different but complimentary tasks to


maximise the well being of the family (Finley: 1989).The research conducted by Finley (1989) explored if the


four models were adequate in explaining why women are more likely to be


involved in caregiving.? The results


were profound.? The data reveals that


neither the external hypothesis nor the time available hypothesis accounts for


the gender differences in caregiving.?


In terms of task specialisation, Finley (1989) concludes that men are do


not specialise in certain types of tasks and females are more likely than males


to provide help.? The study also


concludes that gender socialisation is the best explanation for why women are


seen as natural carers.??? Heenan (2000) who conducted a study on women as informal


carers in Northern Ireland, more than a decade later supported Finley?s


conclusion.? The results were unchanged


and therefore shows the patriarchal nature of caring.? The study acknowledged that majority of research conducted on


women carers is quantitative and is therefore limited.? Heenan (2000) conducted a qualitative study


to explore the intrinsic reasons for why women do majority of caregiving. The


finding suggested that the women who were interviewed perceived caring as


natural and unquestionable.? Caring is


dependable on a set of cultural expectations and norms and the acceptance of a


caring role is often related to complicated social expectations and


obligations.? This is supported by


Chamberlayne et al (1997) who concludes, that women are caught up in the


complexities of familial relationships, a web of hidden gendered pressures


concerning conflicting ties of obligation and affection.?? The women interviewed also believed that they were


returning the help they were given by their relatives and that caring is ?part


and parcel of marrying a farmer? (Heenan: 2000).? The women felt that being seen as a ?natural? carer was a vicious


circle and they could not relate to the description of their role.? They were therefore socialised into the


thought that caring was something that is not thought about or analysed as a


distinctive part of their lives and being a carer was meaningless.? Finch and Mason (1993) who noted giving and


receiving care as unremarkable supported this notion. Cancian (2000) also suggests


that the devaluation of care becomes institutionalised and it persists in the


routine roles and practices that contemporary organisations inherit and


repeat.? Parson (1967) theory suggests


that norms are consensual.? People agree


to the norms to avoid a disordered society.?


Functionalists also believe that the process of socialisation reproduces


?successful? and ?ordered? individuals to reproduce a ?ordered? society


(Parsons: 1967).? However, the study by


Heenan (2000), fails to specify how the men in the family see the patriarchal


nature of caregiving, which would have given an unbiased overview of why women


are seen as ?natural? carers from a male?s perspective.?? Important criticisms of the above arguments emerged during


the 1990?s, which suggested that, substantially more men were involved in


caring than previously thought.? Men are


caring out a wide range of caring roles involving many hours per week (Fisher:


1994).? Evidence suggests that despite


women being the predominant carers, both men and women have an equal chance of


being a carer in a spousal relationship.?


Therefore in the selection of the carer gender differences may be


outweighed by the

presence of a spouse (Twigg: 1994).? However, MacDougall (1997) suggests that women are less likely to


be self concerned when someone is in need whilst men are less likely to be


responsive to someone else?s need.?


However, more research is needed on the nature of male caregivers.Despite the explanations and evidence for and against


women as ?natural? carers, evidence suggests that there are a majority of men


who are also involved in both aspects for caregiving.? The theory highlighted above can be challenged with subsequent


research into male caregivers.? This


part of the essay will provide evidence for why men are seen as the ?forgotten


carers? and if apathy towards men carers exaggerates the statement made by


Finch and Groves (1983).? Men are changing, redefining and reinventing


themselves.? Men are increasing in


numbers within the caring professions most notably nursing and individual men have


demonstrated these caring behaviours through child care and by having closer


relationships with their children (Sabo et al: 1995).? Perkins et al (1993) and Squires (1995) have found that men are


entering nursing often at a similar age as women and their desire to care for


others was found to be a recurrent theme as well as job security, empowerment


and power as a professional.?? According to Sabo et al (1995) men remain the ?forgotten


carers? because their considerable contribution to care often go unrecognised


and there are three assumptions to support why men are the forgotten


carers.? Firstly men are unlikely to be


primary caregivers, secondly older men receive more support from formal and


voluntary services than women carers do and thirdly when men do engage in a


caregiving role they are more likely to obtain informal support from others


than women (Sabo et al: 1995).? The traditional masculine identity also continues to


possess the modern man.? This identity


is found in oppressive practises that affect women, gay men and Black men.? Within nursing, traditional masculine men


are achieving positions of power in ever increasing numbers and it is not


unreasonable to suggest that these men have tended to suppress their caring


instincts in order to maintain their traditional masculine roles (Davies:


1995).? Chodorow (1978) also supports


this argument and suggests that men learn work values through gender


socialisation by becoming separate, controlling feelings and to valuing


rationality.? Men have the ability to


care however they need to be shown how.?


Sexism, racism and homophobia need to be continually challenged if


caring is to achieve any authenticity (Davies: 1995).???? To conclude women are still seen as ?natural? carers due


to the norms and ?acceptable? behaviours set by the society.? Women face the burden of caring in both


formal and informal sectors, due to the ageing population and the socialisation


process, which see caring as ?natural? for women.? Walker (1992) suggests that the predominance of women carers has


been traditionally explained at an individual level and gender equity has been


ignored.? Walker (1992) & Jones


(1994) also suggests that the naturalness of the arrangement of women carers have


been defended by the assumptions that women have closer emotional ties to


family members and caring is central to women?s perceptions of themselves as


?good women?.? However men are not far


behind.? They too are involved in both


formal and informal caring, but their efforts are not widely acknowledged by


the society, government or the NHS who rely so heavily on informal carers to


provide majority of the care.? More


research is also needed in the status of male caregivers and how caregiving


differs between the two sexes (Sabo et al: 1995).??? Cancian (2000) suggest four ways to lessen the gender


inequality between carers: to build recognition of the value of caregiving,


support and complement family caregiving with a system of social care, reward


paid and unpaid caregiving on the same levels as other productive work and


other duties of citizenship and to create gender equality in opportunities and


obligations to care.? Hooyman &


Gonyea (1995) also suggest that validation of women?s experiences as caregivers,


interconnections among women?s multiple roles and women?s empowerment within


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Ca: Newbury Park.?

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