ABSTRACT
Women inhabit the heart of the community care process. Their activities are based on a whole set of deeply embedded assumptions in patriarchal society with respect to ‘natural’ care and carers. The argument expressed in this chapter is that community care policies have been formulated on the basis that women’s caring (informal care) will automatically support formal caring, but that the many stresses and strains or the economic costs are not accounted for. The chapter examines the role of women within the family network; the interrelationships between formal and informal caring for females; the role of women in the community and the considerable impacts exerted by general community and environmental changes; the significance of ageing for women faced with community care, either as carer or client; the financial hardships for women in community care and the connections with women’s health; and the nature of the feminist critique of women’s health.
