The contribution of family and women to unpaid health care in Uruguay

Abstract

Considering the growing importance of care in public agenda and research in Uruguay, this paper focuses on one type of unpaid care that requires more visualization: unpaid health care. It aims to answer the following questions: Who bears the costs of unpaid health care in Uruguay? What is the profile of unpaid caregivers in health care? What relationship do they have with the institutional health system? It uses information from the National Survey of Unpaid Health Care, conducted by the Research Group Sociology of Gender, of which the authors of this article are members. The survey is representative of the Uruguayan population, based on a two-stage sample stratified by socioeconomic level, where 1,198 homes were consulted about unpaid health. It demonstrates that health care is mostly done by household members, on unpaid basis. Women are the main caregivers in health, what shows the existing sexual division of labor in these tasks. In turn, it is older women who are mostly dedicated to such care, and this is a particular feature that differentiates the health care of unpaid everyday care.