Care services help women who are mothers or daughters to combine caregiving and gainful employment. While Swedish childcare policy expanded services to meet the needs of children and working mothers, this discourse analysis of Swedish eldercare policy shows that the expansion of eldercare services from the 1950s to the end of 1970s was justified solely on the basis of older people's needs. The lack of connection in policy documents between the needs of working daughters and the provision of eldercare services made it easier to cut services beginning in the 1980s, without considering the consequences for family members.

This article analyses the changing roles of the state, family and market in providing care for older people in Sweden, in relation to Scandinavian welfare ideals of universalism and de-familisation. Since 2000 every fourth residential care bed has disappeared and the increase in homecare services has not compensated for the decline. Instead family care (defined here as help from adult children and other non-cohabiting family or friends) has increased in all social groups: help by daughters mainly among older people with shorter education and help by sons among those highly educated. Use of privately purchased services has also increased but continues to play a marginal role. Family care remains more common among older people with less education whereas privately purchased services are more common among those with higher education. This dualisation of care challenges universalism, and working-class daughters continue to be most affected by eldercare cutbacks.

Women’s and men’s lial care: extent, content and consequences

This paper analyses the extent, content and consequences of caregiving for elderly parents from a gender and welfare state perspective using a nationally representative postal survey conducted in Sweden in 2013 (response rate 60.5 per cent, 3630 individuals, age 45–66 years). Negative consequences of filial care on well-being, work situation and employment were examined. The analysis confirms earlier research showing that filial care is common in Sweden but is less intense and has fewer negative consequences than in less generous welfare states. A quarter of both women and men gave filial care at least once a month, on average around 3.4 hours a week.

Although men and women gave the same extent of filial care, it was more common among women to give the more demanding personal care as well as to experience mental and physical strain, difficulties in finding time for leisure activities and reduced ability to focus on their job. Although women retired earlier than planned due to filial care more often than men, this was very rare. Men and women, however, suffered to the same extent from difficulties in managing to accomplish their tasks, to take part in meetings, courses and travels, as well as having to reduce their working hours and quit their jobs.

The content of care was crucial for the occurrence of negative consequences of caregiving, even when the analysis controlled for hours of care given. The more demanding the care tasks performed, the more common it was among both men and women that their well-being and work situation were affected. The correlation between care tasks and negative impact, however, differed between genders. The impact of managerial care was much higher for women than for men, which is discussed in relation to the decline of eldercare services and the lack of coordination of health and eldercare services.