RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Race, gender and the impossibilities of care
JF Medical Humanities
JO J Med Humanit
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 34
OP 37
DO 10.1136/medhum-2011-010073
VO 38
IS 1
A1 Swartz, Leslie
YR 2012
UL http://mh.bmj.com/content/38/1/34.abstract
AB Informal care work is indispensible to healthcare but is often invisible. Using my own experience with carers who looked after my dying mother, I explore the submerged racial and gender politics of care work, issues which have a particular relevance in South Africa. I raise the question of whether it is possible for powerful professionals like myself to engage with care workers in ways which do not reproduce patterns of exclusion and exploitation. Telling of and thinking about ‘private’ stories which are intimate and visceral experiences may help us to think more clearly and more visibly about the politics of care work.