TY  - GEN
N2  - In the United States, over 20.5 million women provide unpaid care labor to an older adult. During the last year of life, over 75% of Medicare beneficiaries depend solely on the unpaid labor of their daughters and female spouses to meet daily care needs. Significant inequities exist in the impact of unpaid eldercare on the health of U.S. adults, with women consistently experiencing more negative outcomes based on myriad metrics. In order to understand and oppose the structural forces underlying these inequities, we have developed a feminist poststructuralist theory of agency for women providing unpaid eldercare. Our theory development process included reviewing existing literature, identifying dominant and subjugated discourses, defining core concepts, and illustrating these concepts with exemplars. The two central feminist poststructuralist concepts we leverage are the discursive, intersectional construction of identity and the relational nature of agency. These conceptions form sharp contrasts with dominant biological identity essentialism and conceptions of agency as synonymous with autonomy. While individual women's agency may be constrained by the hegemonic discourse on eldercare as freely given and naturally female, relational agency to oppose external and internalized oppression can be mobilized through the emancipation of subjugated discourses.
DO  - 10.6083/0k225b72t
DO  - DOI
AB  - In the United States, over 20.5 million women provide unpaid care labor to an older adult. During the last year of life, over 75% of Medicare beneficiaries depend solely on the unpaid labor of their daughters and female spouses to meet daily care needs. Significant inequities exist in the impact of unpaid eldercare on the health of U.S. adults, with women consistently experiencing more negative outcomes based on myriad metrics. In order to understand and oppose the structural forces underlying these inequities, we have developed a feminist poststructuralist theory of agency for women providing unpaid eldercare. Our theory development process included reviewing existing literature, identifying dominant and subjugated discourses, defining core concepts, and illustrating these concepts with exemplars. The two central feminist poststructuralist concepts we leverage are the discursive, intersectional construction of identity and the relational nature of agency. These conceptions form sharp contrasts with dominant biological identity essentialism and conceptions of agency as synonymous with autonomy. While individual women's agency may be constrained by the hegemonic discourse on eldercare as freely given and naturally female, relational agency to oppose external and internalized oppression can be mobilized through the emancipation of subjugated discourses.
AD  - Oregon Health and Science University
AD  - Oregon Health and Science University
T1  - The hegemonic discourse on care as free and female: women's agency in unpaid eldercare
DA  - 2020
AU  - Tarter, Robin
AU  - Hassouneh, Dena
L1  - https://digitalcollections.ohsu.edu/record/8270/files/Robin-Tarter.pdf
PB  - Oregon Health and Science University
PY  - 2020
ID  - 8270
L4  - https://digitalcollections.ohsu.edu/record/8270/files/Robin-Tarter.pdf
KW  - Health Services for the Aged
KW  - Feminism
KW  - family caregiving
KW  - eldercare
KW  - theory development
KW  - feminist poststructuralism
TI  - The hegemonic discourse on care as free and female: women's agency in unpaid eldercare
Y1  - 2020
L2  - https://digitalcollections.ohsu.edu/record/8270/files/Robin-Tarter.pdf
LK  - https://digitalcollections.ohsu.edu/record/8270/files/Robin-Tarter.pdf
UR  - https://digitalcollections.ohsu.edu/record/8270/files/Robin-Tarter.pdf
ER  -