How to Make Care-Work Visible?
We seek to understand under which conditions care work emerges from shadow
economy and becomes visible, either within families or in a professional
frame, both at a political level and at the micro level of social perceptions.
We analyze the recent history of French social policies devoted to dependent
people and we use a study describing the members of 91 French families
confronted, in 2004,with one of their elderly members' dependence. The French
State subsidizing compensation for daily difficulties of dependent people
leads to a surprising parallel between the rise of specific jobs and the
public recognition of family care work. When looking at family structures,
there is a huge difference between multiple-members families and trapped kin,
erasing gender effect in this latter case. Family care work becomes more
visible when there exists a professional equivalent: cleaning, doing the
laundry, or washing the dependent person. Thus, male family care work when
existing, such as home repairs or administrative tasks, remains invisible.
ER - End of Reference
343-368
18
2009
Economic Sociology of Work
LoïcTrabut
FlorenceWeber