Aging & Social Change: Ninth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Among the societal challenges posed by the rapidly ageing population is that of providing sufficient financial and human resource for residential and end-of-life care. In Cornwall in south-west England, as in the rest of the UK, there is a care work recruitment crisis. Low pay means many potential employees prefer other, often seasonal work that is readily available (such as in hospitality or tourism), and existing employees are likely to move away from the sector for even a modest increase in salary. In this context, it is striking that over 80% of the care workforce is female (Skills for Care 2017). This paper reports on a qualitative study of men in care roles to identify barriers and opportunities to respond to the recruitment crisis by unlocking this potentially large sector of the workforce. Interviews with male care workers and residential care home managers were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Participants’ interpretations of their colleagues’, their own, and their clients’ normative roles reveal a complex interplay of stereotypes both reinforced and rejected, that lie at the intersections of gender and age. These differing narratives and assumptions about ‘who does what’ have potential implications for the elder care workforce. Even if we could succeed in recruiting more men to care roles, what impact might this have on the work environment? What impact might it have on the experience of being cared for? How might the intersection of age and gender affect our ability to recruit the next generation of care workers?