Redes familiares, género y política social en España y Francia

Abstract

The concern about the capacity of welfare states to respond to the new demands the aging of the population will pose in the years to come, explains why intergenerational relationships, beyond the nuclear family, are becoming a relevant issue in public debate in Europe. The article discusses the role of kinship support for care in comparative perspective in France and Spain. Both in France and Spain the role of grandparents as carers seems to have increased in the last years. The main difference between the two countries is that in the former kinship sup port complements generous provision of services by the state whereas in Spain grandparents substitute scarce social polices. In both countries it is mostly families that provide care for the elderly, the underlying logic of policies being to help families with support services provided by the state. Several issues emerge as questions to be asked: whether in the future families and, more specifically, middle aged women will continue to be available as carers, to what extent this is fair or desirable and how should this resource be complemented with other resources from the state, the market or the community.