Today, the care of children and adults with disabilities is seen as a family obligation. That is, the State removes the responsibility from it and leaves the families to assume all the needs for the care of their members. There are those who agree with this, but we must be aware that care does not only involve care “at home”, it also concerns health, education, transportation, among others.
In recent weeks, one of the news that has gained prominence has been Argentina recognizing maternal care as a job to be counted towards retirement. A great advance that will benefit many mothers who dedicate part of their lives to caring for their children.
However, I do not intend to speak specifically about this event, as I want to draw attention to another type of care: the care of people with disabilities.
As much as it seems an unprecedented subject, feminist theorists brought up this theme in the 1990s and, in short, they mentioned the importance of care by recognizing it as a right of those who are cared for, as well as placing the figure of the caregiver in the spotlight. center of the debate on justice and disability.
Today, the care of children and adults with disabilities is seen as a family obligation. That is, the State removes the responsibility from it and leaves the families to assume all the needs for the care of their members. There are those who agree with this, but we must be aware that care does not only involve care “at home”, it also concerns health, education, transportation, among others.
Research shows that most people with disabilities are on the poverty line, marginalized, without access to basic rights. And how are these individuals going to have a caregiver without having financial conditions? Attributing to the mother, or any other woman in the family, the role of unpaid care .
Even today, care is considered a feminine value and, therefore, undervalued. It is women who stay at home, put aside their careers, while men continue to work or simply abandon their families, leaving them totally helpless. These are women who will never be able to retire, who exhaust themselves physically and psychologically because they generally have no support network. Do you know what the biggest fear of caregiver mothers is? Who will take care of their children after they die, as there is no support for these women, much less for people with disabilities.
This discussion is also extremely important for those people with disabilities who are cared for, as they are more vulnerable to suffering physical, emotional and sexual violence because they are in stressful situations and also because they do not have the financial autonomy to choose and pay for a caregiver. It is no wonder that 40% to 68% of girls and women with disabilities will experience sexual violence before the age of 18 , and 16% to 30% of boys and men as well (MSH; UNFPA, 2016; UNFPA, 2018).
Therefore, we need to fight for a public care policy, in order not only to value the work of caregivers, as Argentina did, but also to minimize the vulnerability to violence practiced by those who are cared for. For this, it is necessary that everyone analyze the proposals of their candidates and vote consciously so that we do not fall into the hands of genocidal politicians again.
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Carolini Constantino is a social worker, researcher, feminist and woman with a disability. She is project coordinator at the Helen Keller Feminist Collective for Women with Disabilities .
Paloma Santos is an illustrator, wheelchair user and feminist. "In my work as an illustrator I try to represent female diversity".
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