FAMILY CARE IN CRISIS - THE BURDEN ON WOMEN
The burden of family care falls disproportionately on women, according to new research from Home Instead
Women in the UK put in thousands more hours looking after elderly relatives than men doWe need to rethink the role of women as default carers in society
Men admit they are not doing enough to help with ageing parents and want to do moreTake Care, a new campaign from Home Instead aims to raise awareness of the issues faced by family carers across the country
A new hard-hitting film accompanying the campaign brings to life the issues facing this exhausted and stressed segment of society
Women in the UK put in thousands more hours throughout their lives looking after elderly relatives than men do.
This stark gender imbalance is one of the worrying central findings of new research, commissioned by Home Instead, into the lives and lifestyles of the nation’s unpaid army of familial carers.
As a society we urgently need to rethink this default carer role - a burden which negatively impacts the lives of millions of women. Many women sacrifice their careers and earning potential to look after children so looking after elderly parents as well only compounds this situation. [1]
The definitive study, which widely explores the pressures placed on multi-generational carers, shows the burden of care falls disproportionately on women.
Key stats from the research show both women & men want this imbalance addressed:
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There is greater expectation on women to meet caring responsibilities than men, according to 88% of females and 65% of men
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Similarly, 84% of females think we need to rethink the role of women as default carers in society - a view shared by 66% of males
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Some 62% of female and 42% of male carers believe men are not doing enough to help with ageing parents
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And 77% of females and 62% of males believe women should demand the burden of care be shared more equally with men
It’s positive that almost half of male carers (42%) believe men should do more to help with caring responsibilities.
It’s far less positive that many of the carers polled (69% female and 43% male) feel that most men believe women should be the carers of older parents.
The vast majority of carers polled (82% of women and 80% of men) say the state remains dependent on the family for the delivery of care for older people and infants.
Ruth Brown, Home Instead COO, said: “Our study clearly shows the burden of care often falls to women when it comes to looking after our ageing parents. And this amounts to millions of hours of unpaid and often gruelling work.
“A majority of those surveyed, both women and men, believe the burden of care must be shared more equally. We live in a society increasingly alert to social justice yet here is a prominent example of an obvious injustice in plain sight that no one seems to want to talk about or address.
“It’s positive that many men want to do more but as a society we need a conversation about what needs to change to make this happen.”
Martin Jones, Home Instead CEO, said: “No one questions helping families with childcare and employers are generally flexible. The same grace and support is simply not there when it comes to supporting people who are providing care for elderly loved ones.
“More must be done to help family carers who are often dealing with extremely stressful lives.”
This snapshot study of the state of the voluntary care sector - typically middle aged people attempting to look after their ageing parents while also working and looking after their own families - exposes a group dealing with unmanageable pressures.
There are an estimated 5 million plus people [2] providing unpaid care in the UK but they are given minimal support from the government or local authorities and so find themselves increasingly struggling, without understanding the other support available to them in the market. The problem is set to get worse as our ageing population grows - there are now more people aged 65 and over in England and Wales than children aged under 15. The number of people aged over 64 has surged by 20% over the past decade in England and Wales, to 11.1 million people. Nearly one in five people are aged over 65.[3]
Concerned about the scale of the problem facing this under-acknowledged group, Home Instead launched the Take Care campaign to spark a much needed debate about the pressures this segment of society is under and what can be done to support them.
Home care can provide much-needed respite to these under-pressure carers restoring important family relationships that can suffer when somebody takes on a caring responsibility.
Hundreds of thousands of families across Britain are now organising their own care through private providers such as Home Instead. The company provided care packages for more than 35,000 people in the UK last year.
To accompany the campaign, the home care provider has commissioned a short, hard-hitting film, based on interviews with representative real life family carers. The film is an unapologetically raw exploration of what day to day life is like for millions of multi-generational carers across the UK.
The survey (conducted by Savanta) spoke to 2000 people across the UK. 65% of this group were carers.
[1] ONS Economic inactivity by reason
[3] UK Census