Conflict and negotiation in intergenerational care: Older women’s experiences of caring with the Old Age Grant in South Africa

Abstract

Social policy and welfare provision have converged with socio-economic conditions, cultural beliefs about kin support and intra-household dynamics to position older women as important financial providers in their families. This article draws on the findings of a qualitative study about intergenerational relationships of care in a large township near Cape Town. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen female Old Age Grant recipients and some of their co-resident adult children. The article focuses on the grant recipients’ experiences of giving and receiving financial support (‘financial care’) in their intergenerational relationships. It also unpacks the intra-household dynamics involved in this caregiving. Although the grant better enabled the women in the study to meet the needs of their households, beliefs about the mutual and shared responsibility for financial caregiving in families informed their expectations of financial assistance from younger kin. When their co-resident younger relatives did earn an income, negotiations around the provision of financial care ensued; generating conflict and reflecting unequal power relations between relatives. These dynamics contributed to the women’s experiences of vulnerability and their high burden of care. In this context, the article examines the state’s role in the care process and how it has contributed to the gendered and generational distribution of care work in families.