Gender, Employment and Responsibilities to Kin

This article is concerned with conflicts of interest between people's commitment to employment and their responsibilities to kin, especially for the care of elderly relatives. Questions are raised about what is generally seen as the appropriate balance of priorities, and how such priorities and conflicts are actually handled and resolved in kin groups, by women in particular. The paper draws on both quantitative and qualitative data from a study of family obligations. The authors argue that choices between either maintaining or giving up employment to care for kin rarely arise in such stark form for a variety of reasons. When they do, however, compromise strategies tend to be sought which protect existing employment whilst at the same time enabling people to take some responsibility for their kin. Women's jobs, as well as men's, can be protected in these circumstances and this is widely approved of at the normative level. It is likely that in the future, if more women are encouraged into the labour market, and if they develop consistent employment patterns, many more may need to generate compromise strategies.