How Care Inequalities are Reproduced in ‘Carer-Friendly’ Jobs: The Case of Employer-Led Carer’s Leave
基于对英国17名在职照护者的访谈,研究揭示了在拥有带薪关爱假的“关爱友好型”工作中,照护者如何协商其照护责任,并指出缺乏法定带薪假可能强化家庭中“谁该照护”的规范认知。
This article investigates how working carers – workers with care responsibilities for a long-term ill, ageing or disabled relative – negotiate their care responsibilities when employed in a ‘carer-friendly’ job with access to paid carer’s leave. Based on narrative interviews with 17 working carers in the UK, the article explores how the availability of carer’s leave influences carers’ perception and legitimisation of their roles as ‘carers’ within their families. By drawing on, and extending Acker’s concept of ‘inequality regimes’, the article uncovers the organisational processes, discourses of legitimisation and normative pressures that shape carers’ roles both in their workplaces and at home. It argues that having a job supported by a ‘carer-friendly’ employer – but without a right to statutory paid carer’s leave – can reinforce the normative perceptions of ‘who’ should be a carer at home.