A Half Life: Women Caregivers of Older Disabled Relatives

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the impact of caring on caregivers' life style and health. Interviews were carried out with women caregivers over 50 years old. Transcripts from the interview are analyzed through a detailed discourse analysis within an ethnomethodological framework showing how the caring tasks are constructed in the interaction as a women's duty, inscribed in a gendered moral order. A difference is noticeable between family caregivers who describe the caring tasks as the cause of intense stress, physical and psychological problems and voluntary or paid caregivers who see caring as a source of satisfaction and well being.

KEYWORDS:

• Caregiving
• discourse analysis
• women caregivers
• ethnomethodology
• gender differences
• women's health