Gendered support to older parents: do welfare states matter?

The aim of this study is to examine the association of welfare state policies and the gendered organisation of intergenerational
support (instrumental help and personal care) to older parents. The study distinguishes between support to older parents provided
at least weekly, i.e. time-intensive and often burdening support, and supplemental sporadic support. Three policy instruments
were expected to be associated with daughters’ and sons’ support or gender inequality in intergenerational support respectively:
(1) professional social services, (2) cash-for-care payments and (3) legal obligations to provide or co-finance care for parents.
The analyses based on the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe showed that daughters provided somewhat more sporadic
and much more intensive support than sons throughout Europe. While about half of all children who sporadically supported a
parent were men, this applied to only one out of four children who provided intensive support. Logistic multilevel models
revealed that legal obligations were positively associated with daughters’ likelihood of giving intensive support to parents
but did not affect the likelihood of sons doing so. Legal obligations thus stimulate support in a gender-specific way. Both
legal obligations and cash-for-care schemes were also accompanied by a more unequal distribution of involvement in intensive
support at the expense of women. Social services, in contrast, were linked to a lower involvement of daughters in intensive
support. In sum, the results suggest that welfare states can both preserve or reduce gender inequality in intergenerational
support depending on specific arrangements.