by Teresa Heinz Kerry and Jeffrey Lewis
In the middle of the night, an elderly parent cries out, and time and again, it is a daughter answering the call, a woman who only hours later and with little sleep will call out to her own children, telling them it's time for breakfast and school. And, as she watches the kids head for the bus, she'll dread the thought of being a burden to them as she grows old.
Every morning, millions of American women wake to tough economic times with growing anxieties about how to care for their aging parents, their own families and their own retirement years. It's mostly women responsible for the care of elderly relatives -- seven out of every 10 adult children helping their parents are female, according to the Older Women's League.
And many of those women are single, divorced or widowed, shouldering the burden alone, living longer with fewer resources. Long-term care is the real American health care crisis. The American people know it because they're living it. Two-thirds of American seniors recognize the need to plan for long-term care, yet only 12 percent feel they're adequately prepared. But it is a crisis Congress avoids, focused instead on redesigning our health care system to help the uninsured.
Read more at Women's Voices For Change.
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I found it very interesting and troubling that 7 out of 10 adults caring for their parents are women. There is such a stigma against women whose brothers care for their parents more than they do, yet when men take the same position its accepted. What about women who live too far to care for their parents? Or are not financially or emotionally able to do so?
Thank you for posting this. I'm always surprised that this isn't brought up more when considering unpaid or underpaid labor where women are over-represented and when addressing the gender wage gap, i.e., why women are in and out of the work force more than men.
Furthermore, women living longer often translates to second caregiving shift later in life: first the kids, then the ailing partner or parents.