Inmaculada Lancharro Tavero, Almudena Arroyo Rodríguez, María del Socorro Morillo Martín, Rocio Romero Serrano, Raquel Chillón-Martínez
El cuidado tradicionalmente ha sido visto como rol de género, sin embargo, los cambios socioeconómicos actuales impulsan el incremento del número de cuidadores, por lo que también deben ser centro de interés para las investigaciones sobre el legado cultural del cuidado. Mediante el método biográfico, se trata de conocer la realidad social de un cuidador a través de sus redes sociofamiliares que hacen que asuma el cuidado de su madre en situación de dependencia. En este relato identificamos como el rol de cuidador emerge cuando falta una red asistencial femenina, de manera que se pone en marcha la red masculina, y como este hecho influye en los diferentes roles sociales que desarrollaba nuestro informante. Se puede considerar que existe una incompatibilidad de roles, sustituyéndose de forma paulatina el rol de trabajador por el rol de cuidador, tradicionalmente invisibilizado por la sociedad que no ha contemplado los servicios de cuidados dentro del Estado de Bienestar
Caregiving has traditionally been seen as a female role, however, recent socioeconomic changes have stimulated an increase in the number of informal male carers and, thus, this group should be the focus of research on their cultural legacy of care. This project employed the biographical method in an attempt to analyse the social reality of a male informal carer through his social and family relations, after he took full responsibility for the care of his mother in a situation of dependence. It became clear that, in this case, the role of male informal carer emerged in the absence of a female figure who could take on the caregiving role; this had an impact on the various social roles developed by the interviewee. It can be argued that there is a high degree of incompatibility between the role of informal caregiver and that of the worker, which is gradually replaced by the first; this phenomenon is probably affected by the fact that the care provided by informal carers has traditionally been hidden by society in the context of a Welfare State