Percepciones sobre la corresponsabilidad entre el estado ecuatoriano y las familias en el cuidado de las personas mayores

The present article analyzes perceptions about the practice of co-responsibility between the State and the family, as established in the Ecuadorian Constitution, to guarantee the well-being of the elderly. To do so the article uses a qualitative study based on semistructured interviews with people responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies and care services for the elderly, and with caregivers of their elderly relatives. The study was based on a theoretical approach to the origins of social and gender inequalities that derive from the social organization of care and from the development of welfare regimes in Latin America. The results indicate that there is a generalized understanding which locates the family as a natural system of care and which is associated with the moral debt around care and the supposed innate characteristics of women. Meanwhile, the role of the State is reduced to the basic social protection of the elderly in a situation of social exclusion. For families, the weak role of the State in the socialization of care then becomes normalized as an inescapable reality. For its part, the State overestimates the unpaid care capacity of families and denies and makes invisible their demands.