英文摘要 |
Care as a concept has been developing for many years, from putting women into an unpaid care context, to diversity of care provision. Care as commodity or welfare goods implies the re-organization of responsibility between state, market, community, and family. This study reviews many existing papers relating to care and finds an important research gap: the different female experiences across generations and their interaction with the institutional structures are missing. Thus, this paper integrates a feminist approach and life course theory, to explore the nature of female caregiving in Taiwan over two generations (those born in the 1950s and 1970s). To achieve this goal, the research design is primarily based on qualitative research, including in-depth interviews and document analysis. The finding is that the oppressive situation faced by the female caregivers is both gendered and generationalized. The 1950s females are embedded into family care within their life course as unpaid and paid care workers, while the 1970s females face multiple pressures from work and caregiving, though with assistance from care allowances and respite services that actually do not change the female role as caregivers. This paper argues that the transformation of care contributes to the reorganization of female labor and to differentiating women's experience by generation and class. The reorganization of care division in the past decade is still deeply rooted in the patriarchal nature of the state and does not really help women escape from the trap of caregiving. |