| 32837 |
Creator |
05f38fcc8202a44ca8101a9ef824e125 |
| 32837 |
Creator |
ext-ba922faa87ff8e35ddb59e49d4e8384c |
| 32837 |
Date |
2011 |
| 32837 |
Is Part Of |
repository |
| 32837 |
Is Part Of |
pd66bdaef3815a55d543fd2f92647084d |
| 32837 |
abstract |
Women mainly provide family care, but as women’s economic opportunities increase they
will not continue to bear the costs of providing care unaided. To create a sustainable
care system, care and carers must be better supported and more highly valued to involve
more men in caring and reduce gender inequalities.<br></br><br></br>Key points<br></br><br></br>Most
care is still provided through family obligations, unpaid but not free, since it is
‘paid for’ by reduced opportunities for carers. Family carers are mostly women, because
of gender norms and also the gender pay gap, which makes it more costly for men to
reduce employment hours.<br></br><br></br>As women move increasingly into employment,
family carers’ demand for employment will continue to rise, as will the need for paid
care. The UK’s long working hours make it difficult to combine caring with full-time
employment, but part-time pay rates are often considerably lower.<br></br><br></br>Four
in five paid carers are women, in a sector having increasing difficulties with recruitment
and retention. The care sector’s poor pay is a large contributor to the gender pay
gap.<br></br><br></br>Privatisation of residential and domiciliary care has produced
a labour market with insufficient opportunities for training and career development.
This is unlikely to attract men, and women will increasingly leave as their employment
opportunities improve.<br></br><br></br>This situation will be unsustainable for meeting
society’s care needs unless:<br></br>- pay and conditions improve to retain more women
and encourage men to enter the care sector;<br></br>- unpaid carers receive financial
and other support, and working hours are reduced for all, so that more people can
combine family care with employment;<br></br>- cash payments to individuals are not
allowed to drive out funding for vital community services; and<br></br>- policies
are judged by the quality of care they support and how much they encourage a stable,
less gender-divided workforce, as well as value for money<br></br><br></br>Any other
solution would be unworkable, unfair and inconsistent with government commitments
to reduce gender inequalities.<br></br><br></br>Costs will continue to rise as the
paid care sector grows, since to recruit and retain care workers, wages will have
to keep up with those elsewhere. Because rising care costs are an effect of rising
productivity elsewhere in the economy, paying for them will still let disposable incomes
increase. Spending more on social care can be afforded.<br></br><br></br> |
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authorList |
authors |
| 32837 |
status |
peerReviewed |
| 32837 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/47607 |
| 32837 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/47608 |
| 32837 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/47626 |
| 32837 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/47929 |
| 32837 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/47930 |
| 32837 |
uri |
http://data.open.ac.uk/oro/document/651374 |
| 32837 |
volume |
4 |
| 32837 |
type |
AcademicArticle |
| 32837 |
type |
Article |
| 32837 |
label |
Himmelweit, Susan and Land, Hilary (2011). Reducing gender inequalities to create
a sustainable care system. Kurswechsel, 4 pp. 49–63. |
| 32837 |
label |
Himmelweit, Susan and Land, Hilary (2011). Reducing gender inequalities to create
a sustainable care system. Kurswechsel, 4 pp. 49–63. |
| 32837 |
Publisher |
ext-0c8a1498991193984310e64ee94bdc18 |
| 32837 |
Title |
Reducing gender inequalities to create a sustainable care system |
| 32837 |
in dataset |
oro |