Centre for Policy on Ageing



Gender, marriage, and expectations for personal care
Author(s)	Glenna Spitze, Russell Ward
Journal title	Research on Aging, vol 22, no 5, September 2000
Pages	pp 451-469
Keywords	Married couples ; Single persons ; Informal care.
Annotation	Among other benefits of marriage, spouses are particularly well suited for providing sick or personal care. Yet, care may vary by gender and marital status, given that women are less likely to be married, especially at older ages. This article poses two questions. First, who is expected, by married and unmarried men and women, to provide personal care? Second, how does the gender of the individual or of children structure expectations for care? For married people - particularly in high quality marriages - spouses are likely care providers. However, for women, spouse help is less reliably available. Unmarried people are more likely to mention "no-one" and have a wide variety of expected sources of sick care, but children are the more usual choice. (RH).
Accession Number	CPA-001023212 A
Classmark	SM: SQ: P6
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.