It’s women who do most of the caring in society, be it paid or unpaid. But what’s in it for them?

Women are most definitely the mainstay of social care work sector. In fact, they make up nearly 90% of all members, according to a Fawcett Society research paper. The report, aptly titled Undervalued work, underpaid women – women’s employment in care homes, uncovers serious inequality, including poor pay. The lack of status and value attached to the majority of jobs in the independent care homes sector was a key finding. One care worker stated, ‘Although work in care homes is very hard, the value attached is very low’. So why are women so highly represented in care work, and should they care less?

Pay and conditions come high up on the list of problem areas. Average pay rates for care assistants and support staff were found to be below £4.00 an hour (£3.73, to be precise). Three quarters of those earning less than £4.00 per hour are women, many working part time.

Where are the men?
Wendy Blaylock, 37, is a care worker with a local authority in London. She has been in the field since she was 18 years old, and has noticed the overwhelming presence of women in care work. ‘There are definitely a lot more women in this sector. I used to work in local government and it was the same. Up until now, I’ve mainly worked in mental health. I especially notice the imbalance when I go on courses. For example, on a social work course I attended in 1989, there were only 4 men out of a total of 36 people on the course. Last year I took a drama and movement therapy course and only one man attended out of 17 people.’

Blaylock has a view on why care work attracts more women: ‘Caring, undoubtedly due to its name, is viewed as a nurturing field. Therefore, it's not considered macho in any way. And this deters men. The traditional view is to look at caring as a job, in which you might have to bath people and clean up after them. The irony is that care work often involves incredibly challenging situations which carry the threat of violence,’ says Blaylock. ‘Fundamentally, I think that the overall shortage of permanent care workers, both male and female, is due to agencies paying higher wages for short-term contract work than a local authority would,’ she says.

Next page: the pros and cons for women care workers

Flexibility in care work may suit women, but does it provide security?
There is a trend towards casual work in the care sector, to ensure flexibility and 24-hour, 7-day cover, particularly amongst large care providers. What about security? A spokesperson for Unison, the public sector workers union outlined the chief concerns when it comes to short-term contracts. ‘Because care workers are more likely to be employed on temporary contracts, as part of a bank staff and on short hours there are particular issues they need to be aware of. Although flexible hours might suit women with children, and the majority of staff in care work are paid similar hourly rates to permanent staff, they are not entitled to holidays, sick pay or pensions.’ Clearly, this is a serious issue for women as their lifetime earnings are vastly affected simply by undertaking agency work.

So the bottom line is, pensions mean security – women without one are not in a secure position, when it comes to their financial future.

Where’s the value?
Are women simply paid less in these positions because the roles aren’t valued? Or is it that roles are undervalued because women fill them? It sounds like a catch-22 situation. What we do know is that women will bear the brunt of low pay and inferior terms and conditions of employment, because of their tendency towards short-term contracts, instead of permanent jobs.

Don’t forget, the backdrop to all this is unemployment. When there is a large pool of workers, agencies can pick and choose, and this keeps wages low. More and more care work is contracted out, and this can only mean one thing – the private sector will compete on the basis of cost. Once again, the workers, most of whom are women, will be paid the minimum.

Julia Portman has worked in the care sector for 8 years. ‘I know that I can dip in and out of care work. So I choose short-term contracts. This suits me, as I can earn more money in short bursts, and it is more flexible. I am contributing to really deprived people in society, which makes me feel good, and I’m earning more than I could on a supermarket check-out. The downside is that, one day off sick means I lose out on money, and I never have paid holidays. So it’s good and bad,’ states Portman.

Next page: the future

Why do women go for part-time and contract work anyway? Unlike men, women's work patterns put them at a disadvantage in their careers. This is because they may take a break to have children. Having children means juggling the working day, and care work enables women to do just this.

Women on top in social work
While the day-to-day reality of care work relies on the good nature of thousands of women, it’s worth remembering there are a lot of women who are in top-level management in care work. In December 2000, The Guardian’s list of the most influential people in social care was mainly made up of women and headed by a woman. This is an appropriate recognition of the contribution women make to social care as a whole.

Women clearly care for the needy in society – in return, they need society to enable them to keep doing so. Increased recognition for women, in terms of pay and status, are long overdue. Caring for a living is important, but how long will it take before this is recognised?

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