Men and women in paid care work: Continuities and transformations in gender relations in home care services

© 2017 Quaderns-E de L'Ica. Caregiving within social services is a highly feminized profession, one that is characterized by job insecurity and little social acknowledgement. The rising numbers of men in this field produce new gender dynamics. We analyze the discourse and practice of male and female caregivers, managers and beneficiaries of home-care services, to shed light on the changes and continuities in traditional models of gender, as well as on the opportunities and obstacles men face in this field. We argue that both the professionalization of this field and men's progressive involvement in it represent a new distribution of the social responsibilities involved in caregiving tasks.