BAME Women Carers

The burden of care in almost all communities falls upon the women in the families.  It is the women in the family that usually take the brunt of the social and economic impact on their lives; often for the best interests of their immediate family.

However, there are a multitude of other factors which may or may not affect BAME women carers which might perhaps be less impactful in non-BAME women.  There is the social construct of care and who responsibility it is from caring (raising) children to cooking within the home to caring for the elders or the infirm.  But cultural obligations and dare we say ‘norms’, dictate the role of many BAME women.  

Whilst this is and no doubt will change with progressive generations, the tradition expectations together with the economic impact hit women harder than they do men.  We think this would be an excellent area of research for someone to compare and contrast between the women of the different communities, but suffice it to say, that BAME women carers are judged more so by their peers regarding the quality of care provided.  

They are expected to remain at home to care rather than to work in paid employment.  There is sometimes a prejudiced view that BAME women may be passive and their assertiveness can be seen as aggression by services, literacy levels may be lower in BAME women – especially where they might have joined their husband’s family coming from abroad as the wife or fiancé.