Men's caregiving - Gender and the contingent character of care

This article extends recent scholarship on masculinity by analyzing the eff ects of social structure, social relations, and gendered caregiving ideolog y on the care men give to kin and friends. To be sure, men spend significan tly less time giving care than do women. However much variation is continge nt on the women in men's lives: it is primarily the characteristics of men' s families (including wives' caregiving: the presence of young children, es pecially daughters; and the availability of siblings, especially sisters) m ore than employment or gendered caregiving ideology that shape the amount a nd kind of caregiving men provide. Our findings suggest that although men's caregiving is variable and socially patterned it is contingent on women: W ives and daughters pull men into caregiving, while adult sisters substitute for them.