A gender-aware and masculinity informed lens on informal caregiving

In caregiving literature, it is often the female gender that has been the focus of attention, and in particular women’s unpaid labour. Studies also tend to make comparisons between men’s and women’s caregiving, using men’s caregiving experiences to show not only that women face greater burdens, but also that men’s needs can be disregarded. This means that while gender analyses are not uncommon in the caregiving literature, gender tends to be equated with womanhood. This research project focuses on the gender bias that characterizes caregiving scholarship at present and the fact that this bias is impeding us from moving the debates on care and caregiving forward.