Abstract

Providing care for older people who have support needs is mainly a familial and female responsibility in Chile. Despite Chile's development level, the participation of females in the workforce lags behind (at around 50%), and 72% of female carers of an older relative are not in the labour force. This paper explores the reasons why in Latin America adult children remain out of the labour force while caring for an older parent or parent-in-law who has support needs. It draws on 30 in-depth interviews of family carers from low- to high-income households. The interviews were carried out in Chile in 2017, and were analysed using an inductive thematic analysis to identify core themes related to the subjects' reasons for remaining out of the labour force. Four factors hinder the combination of paid work and caring for a parent or parent-in-law with support needs: (a) externalised care was too expensive; (b) finding non-precarious, flexible work was difficult; (c) their perception of femininity or womanhood conflicted with the idea of combining care and paid work; and (d) they experienced a lack of public and/or social support.