Qualitative research in the intimacy as task and its control form among care workers

• Project/Area Number: 24510372
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Gender
• Research Institution: Tokyo Gakugei University
• Principal Investigator: MATSUKAWA Seiichi 東京学芸大学, 教育学部, 教授 (20296239)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2014)
• Budget Amount: ¥4,290,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥990,000); Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000); Fiscal Year 2013: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000); Fiscal Year 2012: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
• Keywords: ケアワーク / 親密性 / ジェンダー / ケア / 労働過程論 / フェミニスト経済学 / ケア労働 / 専門職性

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research examined that the gender-biased features of the (self-) control mechanism in the labor process of paid care workers on the basis of the analysis of stories which they told about their own work experiences. The concept of “labor” is not gender-neutral but deeply male-biased because it consists of agency. On the other hand, human service professions have a fundamental contradiction that their care labor which is actualized as the development of human relations between a care giver and a care recipient objectifies the relationship in its labor process. The research explored that the strategy which paid care workers applied in order to avoid the conflict against the gender-biased emotion rule of care recipients resulted in the transformative effect on the gender norm of the care workers.