The effect of women’s care-giving role on their social security rights

Abstract

Kitty Malherbe and Lorenzo Wakefield show how roles traditionally allotted to women may obstruct their access to the right to social security. There are instances where women’s care-giving role provides them with benefits they otherwise would not have had, such as child support grants. On the other hand, care-giving can exclude women from the application of other benefits, such as certain retirement funds. The authors examine the need for measures aimed at providing assistance to women as care-givers as well as the potential pitfalls of such measures, such as the danger of stereotyping women as care-givers.