Who cares? The grandmother kinship carers shouldering the burden within a gendered care economy

Abstract

It is estimated that around half of all kinship carers in the UK are grandparents. International studies show that when broken down by gender, these carers are predominantly grandmothers. However, there is little research exploring the gender dimensions of kinship carers’ experiences. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 27 grandparent kinship carers, this article highlights the gendered context in which the grandparents we spoke to found themselves. The grandparents – the majority of whom were grandmothers - described lives filled with multiple unpaid caring commitments and demands. We discuss the ways that gender norms, roles and stereotypes, alongside economic models and policies that invisiblise women’s care work, shaped the experiences of the grandmothers who took part in our research. We argue that, despite their undeniable determination and commitment to love, nurture and care for their grandchildren in very difficult circumstances, and the money they are saving the state in doing so, grandmother kinship carers are penalized in multiple ways. Economically, emotionally, socially, physically and practically, grandmother kinship carers are unsupported and undervalued. We need a social, economic and cultural shift around the value of care and a redistribution of care work across genders. The situations of grandmother kinship carers need to be part of this shift, so that grandmothers who care for their grandchildren are no longer penalized, and all kinship carers are properly supported and valued.

Keywords:

• Economy
• grandchildren
• grandmothers
• gender
• kinship care

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the research participants and the funder for their time and commitment to the study.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained under the procedures of the University of Roehampton Ethics Committee

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data is not available.

Notes

1 Grandparents may be trying to support their own adult children simultaneously, or facing a difficult decision between parenting either their grandchild or child. The huge emotional impacts of kinship care for grandparents, the resulting changes to family relationships, and the complicated feelings of guilt, shame, pride and love that kinship caring can create for grandparents, is discussed separately in a forthcoming article.

2 Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASC)

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust [Grant No. SRG\171528].