The personal is political: A feminist analysis of the daily experience of informal female caregivers of adult people in dependence situation, in Santiago de Chile

Abstract

Introduction: The article raises, from a feminist perspective, how the growing crisis of care, accentuated in neoliberal states, generates an absorption of this problem by women, especially when it comes to dependent adults. Objective: To describe the daily life of informal caregivers of dependent adults, in addition to the effects that this work has had on their lives. Method: Qualitative research, framed as critical and feminist, which has included the semi-structured interview and participant observation of the daily life of 7 informal caregivers in Santiago de Chile, between 2018 and 2019. Results: A complex web of activities was identified that make up the daily life of care work, which produces a great level of overload on caregivers. In addition, multiple effects were evidenced in their daily lives, which include those of a personal, family, and economic nature. Conclusions: The sexist social organization of care produces gendered occupations as its effect, evidencing the socio-historical character that generates precarious daily lives for women who undertake care work for dependent adults in an informal way as a political and not personal problem.