Family care for older persons in South Africa: heterogeneity of the carer’s experience

Abstract

The article highlights the heterogeneity of employed women’s experience of family care for older persons by focusing on multigenerational households. First, I argue that care for older persons must be understood in the context of multiple family responsibilities. Second, I show that care for older persons occurs in a context of inequalities that remain in post-colonial settings where there is highly uneven access to material resources, high levels of unemployment, poverty and limited social welfare provision. From this understanding of care, I argue that women’s position within wider care relations reveals elements of differentiation between women who occupy different class and racial positions.

Editorial

“…Drawing on interviews with former miners living in Lesotho to challenge views of hegemonic masculinity in care studies, the authors conceptualise care/caring as involving three 'active' dimensions. In the fourth article, Moore (2023) examines the position of female co-residential employed caregivers in South Africa. Her article reveals how family care of older persons is located in multiple care contexts and shows how in taking responsibility for caring for an older person, a family member may also have to take responsibility for other relatives the older person can no longer support, increasing inequalities for caregivers along racial, class and gender lines.…”