Barcelona Metropolis

Indeed, despite diversified cohabitation patterns, alterations in terms of family preferences have not caused the low birth rate. Some research studies present solid arguments the same fertility preferences have remained in place in Western countries for 30 years, with the “two-child” rule mostly prevailing (Sobotka and Beaujouan, 2014), and Spain in no different. According to the 2018 fertility survey, almost half of women aged 18-55 express a desire to have a total of two children, and the percentage of women who want to have three children is 26.5%. Adding up these groups, the result is that almost three in four women want to have at least two children; however, one in five have fewer children than they desire (i.e., 21.1% of women in that age bracket). Following the results of that survey, lower expectations on number of children among women is related to economic aspects in 19.9% of cases, and with work and work-life balance in 25.9%. Therefore, the final number of children will first be influenced by the limits and opportunities offered by work-life balance policies; and second by the risks involved for couples by having children while they are both working and maintain a double breadwinner family model. This is why, in countries such as ours, in which citizen services are greatly limited, men and women (and especially the latter) use the “double breadwinner/extended family” strategy (Moreno, Ortega and Gamero-Burón, 2017), according to which household organisation is maintained thanks to the family network collaborating in care tasks while both spouses work.

No willingness, no availability

However, the effects of longevity combined with reproductive changes are modifying relationships between generations. The fall in family members means families are less willing and available to care, a situation that is at odds with greater needs for caring for older adults, adding insufficient and fragmented resources. Hence, the educational institutionalisation of children at increasingly younger ages and hiring domestic employees to care for the elderly have risen in recent decades (Martínez-Buján and Moré, 2021). According to a survey on living conditions in 2016, 43.7% of children under three go to nursery. If in the early 1990s around 15% of grandparents stated that they took part in caring for their grandchildren (Meil, 2011), in 2010 this percentage had risen to 35% (Imserso, 2010). Today, grandparents are responsible for approximately 90% of daily care when the mother or father are not available (Meil, Rogero-García, Romerso-Balsas, 2018). Meanwhile, hiring domestic employees has become the main channel for privatising care for the elderly, and their tasks are more and more specialised in caring for ageing. A survey by the Centre for Sociological Research in 2014 on caring for dependants indicates that 30.1% of households that hire domestic service do so for care tasks. The percentage of migrant women among these employees is already 62.3%, with a higher percentage in the case of live-in carers, a format that has also been revitalised to care for the most fragile (Díaz and Martínez-Buján, 2021).

For some time now, there has been relevant scientific literature and a response from feminist social movements showing that this care model —based mostly on unpaid work at home for women, with little participation in social services and growing privatisation through domestic employment— is in crisis. A greater demand for employment leads to more precarious conditions, and less development of the public sector and its services leads to greater saturation of women and more difficulties in care. The term care crisis (Pérez-Orozco, 2014) refers precisely to this constant tension between capital, employment and human reproduction, and limits in political organisation. This care crisis expresses the collapse in women’s and families’ capacity for care, and how this impacts society. The response of middle- and high-class homes has been to outsource care work, a demand mostly covered by migrant women, but commercialising care is not a solution as it increases socio-economic inequalities and does not change gender patterns.  The most vulnerable sectors accumulate more health problems and dependency with no economic capacity to resort to the market.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought visibility to this stratification more than even, and has shown that neither private commercialisation of care within families nor public formulas followed to provide this care were working effectively. In summary, the basic factors that must be considered when reformulating this social organisation of care are: scarce visibility and social value afforded to care; precarious work conditions of employees in this sector; difficulty of incorporating men into these care tasks; fragility of the care home system, which has been unable to prevent contagion; the need to reinforce home care services to respond to ageing at home as an alternative to nursing homes; and the opportunities afforded by mutual support community initiatives.

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