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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Welfare state policy and informal long-term care giving in Austria
— old gender divisions and new stratification processes among women | | Author(s) | Elisabeth Hammer, August Osterle |
| Journal title | Journal of Social Policy, vol 32, no 1, January 2003 |
| Pages | pp 37-54 |
| Keywords | Social welfare ; Social policy ; Women as carers ; Finance [care] ; Austria. |
| Annotation | In Austria, the provision of long-term care is strongly based on unpaid female work within family networks, and is characterised by a highly unequal division of informal long-term caregiving. In 1993, a major reform was introduced in the Austrian long-term care system, with a payments for care programme and a state-provinces treaty regarding service development at its heart. This article investigates the implications of the 1993 programme on gender divisions, and on whether and in what ways the programme and processes set in train by the programme influence the role of women as carers. The question is approached by applying and broadening the concept of defamilisation in a process oriented way. The analysis suggests that from the informal carers' perspective, long-term care allowances in the Austrian context mean some financial relief via "symbolic payments". At the same time, the overall long-term care system prolongs existing gender divisions, and sets in train new stratification processes among women as main carers, with gender, class and space as dimensions reinforcing each other. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-030219204 A |
| Classmark | TY: TM2: P6:SH: QC: 76A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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