Gender, Reciprocity and Market in Elderly Care

• Main Author: Anna Bárbara Araujo
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 2019-05-01
• Series: Revista Estudos Feministas
• Subjects: cuidado; gênero; demandas emocionais do trabalho; reciprocidade
• Online Access: https://periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/ref/article/view/45553

This text discusses the theme of care workers for the elderly who have their services intermediated by a care enterprise. The text is based on a case study in Rio de Janeiro. These women’s work is analyzed through the tension between two logics: one that sees care shaped by values associated with reciprocity and solidarity, perceived as feminine, and another marked by the necessity of professionalization and emotion’s management. The research’s results suggest that both logics – the reciprocity one and the market one – compete in the production of care work’s moral and emotional demands, and that some care workers operate strategies of detachment from the family model of care as a way to value their own work.