Masculinity and the Global South Care Crisis

Speaker: Dr Susanne YP Choi, Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at Oxford School of Global and Area Studies. 

Abstract

Continuous gender inequality in the distribution of the care burden that disadvantages women, and the care crisis brought about by population ageing and outmigration of the middle generation are issues that many countries in the global South face.  Using China as a case study, Susanne Choi addresses these issues by shifting the attention from women, who are traditionally expected to be the ultimate carers of family members, to men.   By examining men’s own subjective understanding of their role in care, and the cultural, structural and interpersonal arrangements constraining /facilitating them to take up a larger share of care and create a more gender equitable care arrangement at home, this talk places masculinity squarely at the centre of the gender and care crisis debate, and with attention to the distinctive cultural and structural contexts in the global South.