The question of how to meet the growing care needs of older people is definitively a burning issue, not the least in ageing Southern European societies. While social reforms have set eldercare on the agenda, the economic crisis and subsequent austerity measures involve re-orienting eldercare policy in ‘cost-effective’ ways. Given the predominance of women in paid and unpaid eldercare, women are fundamentally affected by these changes. Adopting a feminist perspective on the analysis of eldercare and social policy, this paper addresses the question of recognition of care-giving and care work - and its links to redistribution.
The paper focuses on home-based eldercare in Spain, a family care regime in transition. The 2006 Dependent Care reform created a universal right to support for people in “situation of dependency”. However, eldercare policy is being severely affected by the austerity measures adopted since the beginning of the economic crisis. Additionally, with a high degree of familialism, eldercare continues to be treated as a private concern. At the same time, there is an incipient movement towards the commodification of care, involving migrant domestic workers in eldercare.
Empirically, this paper explores the collective struggles for recognition of care-giving and care work, drawing upon 17 semi-structured interviews with representatives of organizations advocating the interest of family carers, domestic workers and/or home helpers – all three categories predominantly mainly women. Their accounts of the problems of eldercare policy, the lack of recognition and redistribution, and the prospects and obstacles for change is central here. The paper examines how the framing of ‘recognition’ differs depending on what category of carer is in focus. It also explores how the discursive struggles challenge and/or reproduce the family care model.
