Gendered elder care exchanges in a Caribbean village

Abstract

Caregiver gender research often translates into caregiver accounts of the care they provide for an elder parent or spouse, limiting an understanding of other community members'involvement and the actual gendered elder care activities performed and caregiver benefits received. This article describes women's and men's actual involvement in elder care. These findings are part of a four-phase ethnographic community study that includes in-depth network analysis of elder households. One-hundred and forty-three informal adult caregivers assisted 15 elders in obtaining the things they needed to live, providing 244 care activities. One-hundred and three women provided 194 care activities, and 40 men performed 50 care activities. In exchange, the frail elders gave the women caregivers 132 benefits and the men 54 benefits. Women and men differed in the amount and type of care involvement, as well as their motivational mechanisms for involvement in elder care.