LIFE COURSE CENTER, AN NIA CENTER ON THE DEMOGRAPHY AND ECONOMICS OF AGING

Gender and Family Eldercare

A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) highlights the value that unpaid caregiving adds to the economy. The provision of unpaid care is highly gendered, with women spending two to 10 times more time on care work than men globally (Ferrant et al., 2014). This blog post reports how gender is associated with both providing and receiving family eldercare in the U.S., using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from IPUMS ATUS. In the ATUS, the Bureau of Labor Statistics defines eldercare providers in the context of the ATUS as “individuals who provide unpaid care to someone age 65 or older who needs help because of a condition related to aging.” This blog focuses on eldercare provided to members of one’s own family, including to one’s spouse or partner, parent, parent-in-law, sibling, grandparent, or other relative. 

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