The Demography of Multigenerational Caregiving: A Critical Aspect of the Gendered Life Course

Abstract

Multigenerational caregiving is important because it affects social and economic outcomes. Existing studies usually exclude theoretically and empirically important aspects—emotional care and horizontal care—that may systematically underestimate gender differences. In this study, we comprehensively describe caregiving by gender and age and examine how sensitive estimates are to the inclusion of directions and types of care. Using the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) in Europe (N = 114,147), we find that women are more likely to provide care than men across the life course, and gender gaps are largest during critical periods for human capital accumulation. Significant gender gaps in favor of more women providing care are found in most countries, especially when emotional caregiving is included, but in some countries, more men provide care at the oldest ages. These findings highlight how measuring caregiving well is critical to understanding the gendered life course.

Eldercare in Japan: Cluster Analysis of Daily Time-Use Patterns of Elder Caregivers

“…3 Those who responded positively that they provided adult care to family members of 65 and over were coded as caregivers. The sample includes those who provide horizontal care (care to spouses and siblings), which is shown to be important and needs to be included in the measurement of caregiving in the caregiving literature (Patterson and Margolis 2019). In 2006 STULA, co-residing caregivers comprised 64.11% of all elder caregivers (3555 out of 5545 observations).…”

Care Life Expectancy: Gender and Unpaid Work in the Context of Population Aging

“…Unpaid caregiving also includes providing assistance with Activities of Daily Living (ADL), such as dressing and bathing, as well as Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), such as doing housework and shopping (Spillman and Pezzin 2000 ). These forms of care are often provided to disabled, ill, or elderly family members and can occur throughout the life course as family members experience disability or illness, but are more likely to occur as parents and partners enter their elderly years (Patterson and Margolis 2019 ). At every life stage, women and men face a different set of familial expectations that are embedded in kinship structures and gender dynamics (Ferree 1990 , 2010 ).…”

“…At every life stage, women and men face a different set of familial expectations that are embedded in kinship structures and gender dynamics (Ferree 1990 , 2010 ). In keeping with these differential expectations, a gender gap in unpaid care work emerges at every stage of the life course (Craig and Mullan 2011 ; Glaser et al 2013 ; Grigoryeva 2017 ; Hank and Buber 2009 ; Leopold et al 2014 ; Patterson and Margolis 2019 ; Raley et al 2012 ; Sarkisian and Gerstel 2004 ; Schmid et al 2012 ).…”

“…Still, women live longer than men in all countries (Raleigh 2019 ). Women’s higher life expectancies and greater involvement in caregiving at every life stage (Patterson and Margolis 2019 ) imply that the duration of caregiving life is longer for women than for men.…”

“…Families are the primary source of caregiving for their members, regardless of the generosity of national social services (Albertini et al 2007 ; Brandt and Deindl 2013 ; Brandt et al 2009 ; Schmid et al 2012 ). However, women do the majority of unpaid care work within families continuously over the life course by taking care of their children, spouses, parents, and other members of their kinship networks (Patterson and Margolis 2019 ). Moreover, there is evidence that taking an unpaid caregiving role is a barrier to women’s participation in paid work (Crespo and Mira 2010 ; Dentinger and Clarkberg 2002 ; Hochman and Lewin-Epstein 2013 ; Lumsdaine and Vermeer 2015 ; Rupert and Zanella 2018 ; Van Bavel and De Winter 2013 ; Wakabayashi and Donato 2005 ).…”