Women bear the load when it comes to looking after their elderly parents, spouses and friends, says a new book that investigates who in Canada is doing unpaid caregiving.
The researchers said the largest group using paid and unpaid home care is seniors, 39 percent men and 61 percent women. The book, which was released last month, quoted Statistics Canada figures that 750,000 Canadian seniors were cared for in their homes and 186,500 in institutions.
Women were the vast majority of the caregivers and they reported that the time spent caring for someone cut into their jobs, leisure time and health. The issues are even more difficult for rural women, as outlined in a 1998 study discussed by the researchers.
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“The higher numbers of elderly and disabled Canadians in rural areas, coupled with dwindling health services, place a greater demand on rural family caregivers,” that study found.
“Resources for rural caregivers are minimal to nonexistent. Rural areas also tend to be more conservative and traditional, which places an even greater expectation on rural women to fulfil traditional roles as unpaid caregivers. The isolation felt by most caregivers is intensified in rural areas because of a lack of services, transportation and support networks.”
Karen Grant, a University of Manitoba sociologist and one of the book’s editors, agreed with the conclusion that it is more difficult to be a rural caregiver. Smaller communities lack a formal infrastructure to offer respite to the women and with rural depopulation, there are few daughters, nieces or siblings nearby to help.
Even though federal politicians have pledged to pay for more home care, Grant said indications are that it will be for limited situations such as immediate care after leaving a hospital or palliative care in the last six months of life.
That does nothing to relieve what she called the “unrelenting” daily unpaid care.
In a News release
news, Kathleen O’Grady of the Canadian Women’s Health Network questioned the federal government’s decision to allow employment insurance to cover paid compassionate leave for those caring for family members. Only caregivers who have worked 600 hours in the previous 52 weeks qualify, which excludes anyone who does not have full-time employment or is self-employed.
“The combination of sending people home for care and the absence of an adequate public home-care program not only reinforces notions about care work being women’s work, but also conscripts women into unpaid care and limits their possibilities for paid work,” O’Grady said.
“If women went on strike and stopped providing care at home, home care would collapse and the health-care system would be overwhelmed.”
