One feature of ageing societies is an increasing number of older people who need help in their daily activities. A significant share of this help is provided by grown up children, especially by daughters. Across Europe, women are more involved in support activities to their ageing parents than men. A study by Tina Schmid, Martin Brandt and Klaus Haberkern explores whether this gender imbalance can be linked to family-policies.
Based on data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), the researchers distinguish between intensive and sporadic support provided by children aged 50+. The first means that respondents helped with housekeeping, paperwork or personal care almost daily, the second included any help that was given only once a week or less often. Almost 30% of the male and 40% of the female respondents are involved in such less demanding forms of support, whilst less than 15% of the respondents provided intensive support (see figure 1).
Figure 1: Percentage of children 50+ who support older parents
Looking at the gender division, the results show that sporadic support is provided to an almost equal extent by men and women, but when it comes to intensive support, women on average provide 75% of it (see figure 2).
Figure 2: Gender composition of children 50+ who support older parents
Policy instruments influencing support for older parents
Concerning welfare regimes, the researchers explicitly look at three policy instruments they expect to have an impact on the support given to older parents. First the availability of professional social services, including housekeeping, home nursing and stationary care services. Secondly cash-for-care programmes where either family-members are paid directly for their care-work, or where the dependent persons receive money that they can use to pay a relative or a professional caregiver. Thirdly, the researchers consider all legal obligations that either required citizens to provide or co-finance their parents’ care.
Looking at the group providing sporadic support, there are more individuals involved in such activities in countries with a generous provision of social services, as they can be found in the Nordic countries. Both cash-for-care schemes and strong legal obligations go along with smaller numbers of daughters and sons providing sporadic support.
In the group providing intensive support, only women were significantly affected by any of the three policy instruments: A high availability of social services correlated with lower numbers of daughters providing this time-intensive help, whereas generous cash-for care provision had an opposite effect, the share of women providing intensive care is slightly higher. The researchers also found that in countries with strong legal care-obligations the percentage of women providing intensive support was higher than in those with minor or no legal obligations.
Gender imbalances in intergenerational support
Why these effects are hardly visible for sons involved in intensive parental support can be largely explained by the existing gendered nature of intergenerational support: Legal obligations in the context of care for older people tend to be taken up by women, not by men. Therefore, policy makers should be aware that these kinds of legislations potentially strengthen gender-inequalities in care responsibilities, whilst social services could have an opposite effect. According to this study, they “might lead to a more equal distribution of intergenerational support, as they reduce intensive support by daughters and increase sporadic support provided by both daughters and sons”.
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This Population Digest has been published with financial support from the Progress Programme of the European Union in the framework of the project “Supporting a Partnership for Enhancing Europe’s Capacity to Tackle Demographic and Societal Change”.