FEMAgeCare
Towards a feminist framework for older women and care: implications for policy and practice
Older care is a gender equality issue. Women undertake the majority of care work and are the majority of people in old age in need of care. Resolving long-term care for older women will support reforms to create sustainable care which meets the needs of all groups requiring care.
FEMAgeCARE, in partnership with the National Women’s Council, will co-create principles for a future model of care for older women across different care settings with older women, care providers and policymakers.
The project will draw on the feminist ethics of care perspective, which foregrounds the experiences of care receivers/givers and challenges the structural, gendered and racial inequalities inherent in current caring systems. The intention is to examine how care for older women can be organised, delivered and funded in a way which addresses the care needs of older women and their unpaid and paid carers and reflects intersectional feminist values.
The project is in partnership with the National Women’s Council (NWC). NWC’s vision is an Ireland where women can achieve their full potential and there is full equality for women. A key action of NWC’s strategic plan is ensuring care and care work is valued in society, including through the development of an inclusive feminist model of care for older women.
Project aims and objectives
- To explore with care receivers and care givers how Ireland can best organise, deliver and fund care for older women.
- To document examples of good care provisions and emerging care models for older women.
- To co-create principles for a future model of care for older women which can inform Ireland’s future care policies and service provision.
- To build participant capacity for future research collaboration on care.
Methodology
FEMAgeCare is based around a series of linked research activities with older women (55+), care workers, policy makers and service providers.
Funder
This project has been funded by the Irish Research Council’s New Foundations Programme 2022.
Contact
Dr Cliona Loughnane (PI) Institute for Social Science in the 21st Century (ISS21), UCC. Email: cliona.loughnane@ucc.ie
