Elliott, Bryony Clare (1995) The paradox of men who do the caring : re-thinking sex roles and health work. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis sets out to attack beliefs that caring is women's work,
to examine the reasons for the resistance to changing conventions
about sex roles and health work and, in view of coming changes in
British demographic and socio-economic structures, to urge people to
consider the question, who cares for us?
The paradox of men caring makes its impact precisely because of the
history and culture of women caring. The force of the image is as
great as the contrast which makes it: men look like misfits in the
caring role because women have been typecast for it. It is the
extraordinary contrast of men carers and nurses talking about their
caring feelings that forces the paradox. In this study, the men and
women nurses and carers who were interviewed discuss their feelings
as the very reason for their caring work, including emotion work
and dirty work. The thesis argues that the men and women share the
same caring values but their caring roles are conflicted by beliefs
about sexual identity. Men's caring act is culturally constructed
whereas women's caring act is directed by biological and cultural
beliefs that help to perpetuate women's structured dependency in
caring roles. The feminisation of caring designates the swamp of
unthinking about women, feelings and bodies that breeds wrong
beliefs about health work and sex roles and subverts the moral
order of caring values.
This is feminist methodology, characterised by being reflexive,
political and experimental. The resulting exploratory study
combines qualitive fieldwork with theoretical inquiry. It is a
deconstuction of sex roles and health work, exploring the
feminisation of caring through the language of care and the history
of nursing, the difficulties with current social theory that genders
caring and ignores feelings, most importantly, the stories of men
and women nurses and carers who talk about their caring feelings,
their work and their beliefs about caring sex roles, and finally the
context of caring in the UK today.
In conclusion, current beliefs about sex roles and health work
undermine the moral order of caring values at a time when the task
of caring for elderly people is increasing. What is required is the
political will to begin the public debate on who should care for
vulnerable kith and kin and who should pay for the work to be done?

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Male caregivers, Caregivers -- Case studies, Nurses -- Case studies, Nursing -- History
Official Date:	August 1995
Dates:	Date Event August 1995 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Clark, Judith
Extent:	iv, 257 p.
Language:	eng

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