Dulcie Groves – författare

What are the realities of ‘community care’ – the unpaid care given by hundreds of thousands of women, often in their own homes – for children and adults who are handicapped or chronically sick, or for frail elderly people? Originally published in 1983, this book explores the experiences of such women and the dilemmas which ‘caring’ poses for them. At a time when most women needed to earn money from a paid job, how did ‘carers’ manage to juggle their caring and other domestic responsibilities, and what happened if they had to give up work?

Against a background of government policies which favour care ‘by’ the community, the contributors to this book raise crucial issues for social and economic policy. Hilary Graham examines what caring really means and Clare Ungerson asks why women do it. Sally Baldwin and Caroline Glendinning focus on mothers with handicapped children and Fay Wright on single adults with elderly dependants. Alan Walker highlights the dependencies implicit in caring relationships with the elderly. Lesley Rimmer looks at the economic ‘costs’ of care, and Dulcie Groves and Janet Finch examine the invalid care allowance – a carers’ benefit for which married women can never qualify.

In exploring the domestic sector of welfare, A Labour of Love was a highly topical contribution to the debate both on welfare provision and on the division of labour between men and women at the time.

What are the realities of ‘community care’ – the unpaid care given by hundreds of thousands of women, often in their own homes – for children and adults who are handicapped or chronically sick, or for frail elderly people? Originally published in 1983, this book explores the experiences of such women and the dilemmas which ‘caring’ poses for them. At a time when most women needed to earn money from a paid job, how did ‘carers’ manage to juggle their caring and other domestic responsibilities, and what happened if they had to give up work?

Against a background of government policies which favour care ‘by’ the community, the contributors to this book raise crucial issues for social and economic policy. Hilary Graham examines what caring really means and Clare Ungerson asks why women do it. Sally Baldwin and Caroline Glendinning focus on mothers with handicapped children and Fay Wright on single adults with elderly dependants. Alan Walker highlights the dependencies implicit in caring relationships with the elderly. Lesley Rimmer looks at the economic ‘costs’ of care, and Dulcie Groves and Janet Finch examine the invalid care allowance – a carers’ benefit for which married women can never qualify.

In exploring the domestic sector of welfare, A Labour of Love was a highly topical contribution to the debate both on welfare provision and on the division of labour between men and women at the time.

During the 1980s a notable development in mainstream social policy in the United Kingdom was the emergence of a feminist critique. Originally published in 1991, Women’s Issues in Social Policy was intended as a contribution to the social policy literature which could also be used in a women’s studies context. It demonstrates the impossibility of understanding the welfare state without appreciating how it treats women, especially as dependants within the family, and the conflicts of interest between men and women as well as the unequal power relationships in the welfare context. It also highlights the fact that women’s traditional role in welfare provision is as unpaid carers for children, the elderly and incapacitated people, and is particularly concerned with the everyday experiences and dissatisfactions of women which had largely been ignored within mainstream social policy research and literature at the time.

Women’s Issues in Social Policy incorporates recent research findings written from a feminist perspective and reveals the breadth and depth of recent work in previously unexplored areas such as time budgeting and transport, as well as developing analysis in traditional areas of interest such as health and personal care.

The editors also looked into the wider European context and included a chapter which examines whether the abortion issue would give birth to feminism in Poland.

Women’s Issues in Social Policy will be of value to teachers and students of social policy and women’s studies, as well as of interest to the general reader.