Looking at the Right to Care through the Lens of Gender

Abstract

This article aims to identify the conditions under which a right to care is likely to promote gender equality in the context of long-term care. The first section describes the transformations of the relationship between care and gender (as equality between men and women became a major goal of democratic societies). The second section stresses the tensions thus generated, especially the “care crisis”. Drawing on previous recent empirical studies on different public policy models in the domain of long-term care in various European Union countries, this article identifies the conditions under which a right to care is likely to promote gender equality.

Keywords: Care, gender equality, unpaid work, right to care