The Long-Term Gender and Race Issues in Long-Term Care

Abstract

Women outlive men, and, as a consequence, comprise the majority of residents in both the home health and nursing home long-term care settings. Their caregivers are also overwhelmingly-women -- 91% of nursing assistants in nursing homes, for example. And those caregivers are largely non-white. Long-term care has long been regarded as "women's work," beginning with its slavery antecedents in the home setting. This article explores the connection between the devaluing of long-term care, which is largely state-funded through Medicaid, and the gender and race dynamics of long-term care.

Keywords: Gender, aging, long-term care, race, Medicaid

JEL Classification: J14, J15, J31