Elderly caregivers: between family obligations and exorbitant market walls

Abstract

This article exposes and analyzes the fundamental, although often invisible, role of older women as unpaid caregivers of other elderly women suffering from chronic illnesses and situations of dependency in the family environment. Faced with filial obligation and the economic barriers imposed by an inaccessible care market, these women assume caregiving with few viable alternatives. From a qualitative approach and an intersectional feminist perspective, the work is based on in-depth interviews and participant observation with five women between 63 and 71 years old, who assume the responsibility of intense and extensive care for fathers, mothers and older sisters with chronic diagnoses: dementia such as Alzheimer's, cancer, arthritis, schizophrenia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Through the construction of narratives, these women reveal how they cope in a context where institutional care options, in addition to being financially inaccessible, are rejected by the profound internalization of a moral and family imperative that imposes on them the responsibility of care at home. This dynamic not only intensifies the physical and emotional exhaustion they face, but also perpetuates structural inequalities and precariousness, making visible the absence of adequate regulation in an area where care should be a guaranteed right. The article concludes with a critical reflection on the urgency of recognizing, valuing and regulating the unpaid care work that these women perform, underscoring the urgent need to establish frameworks to regulate care services in the local market of Mérida, Yucatán.