Eldercare Reconciliation Policy: Supporting Europe's Informal Eldercare Providers

A large body of research in political science has increased our understanding of when, how, and why governments may implement policies designed to address women’s double (or triple) burden. As populations across Europe age, there is clear economic incentive for governments to assure that working-age women will remain in the labor force. However, our understanding of policies for reconciling work and family care is child-centric, despite sociological research clearly showing that middle-aged (working-age) women also do the majority of informal family-based elder care. Indeed we have little empirical research on the reconciliation dimensions of eldercare policy across Europe. This paper brings elder care into the reconciliation policy literature, presenting findings from a new dataset of European countries addressing the following questions: To what extent do reconciliation policies address elder care and what are the gendered dimensions of these policies?