Older people care increases the gender gap in academia

Abstract

Caring for older and for adults with disabilities is nowadays a social challenge for Western societies. However, little research has focused on the role of women as carers of that social group and their personal and professional consequences, particularly in academia. We explore the impact of caring for the older and adults with disabilities on Spanish scholar from a gender perspective. We conducted 36 semi-structured open-ended interviews (24 women, 12 men). Our research finds that, caring for the older and adults with disabilities has costs and implications for scholar on a personal and professional levels, but significantly more for women compared to men. Women often reported more physical and mental health problems than men. In addition, women, reported that their profession was affected by caring for the older people and that they compromised their quality of life mainly in terms of loss of leisure time. Strategies for coping during difficult periods of caregiving differed between genders, whereby women reported reaching out to support networks. At the institutional level, older care is an ‘invisible’ problem, for which interviewees reported not getting any support from their institutions. The study reveals how caring for older people and adults with disabilities adds yet another role and responsibility to women’s dual role as mothers and scholars, leading to “invisible”, often unnamed, impacts on their personal and professional lives: the “triple presence”. Given that the study was conducted in a specific context (Spanish scientists in the fields of environmental science and sustainability), future studies in other geographical areas will be needed to corroborate current findins.