Aging, debt and care A comparison of gender inequality between Brazil and France

• Grant number: 23/10344-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: January 01, 2024
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Guita Grin Debert
• Grantee: Jorgemar Soares Felix
• Host Institution: Núcleo de Estudos de Gênero (PAGU). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/19433-9 - Aging, debt and care: an analysis of the case of France from a gender perspective, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Obedience to the imposition of the fiscal austerity policy causes the State to increasingly transfer to the financial sector the provision of goods and services previously mostly supplied by the public sector, such as health, transport, education and care. This transfer takes place directly, through access to credit modalities, such as payroll loans, and indirectly, through consumption offered by business models governed by private equity funds or transnational organizations established in sectors of vital goods and services, specifically care in its various dimensions. In this context, super-aged societies are also characterized by becoming over-indebted. In Brazil and France, the indebtedness of the elderly appears at high and perennial levels. Women, as they are traditionally caregivers, are more vulnerable to over-indebtedness than men. The objective of this research is to establish comparisons to detect ways for the State to reduce the risk of over-indebtedness of elderly women based on a qualitative knowledge of the causalities of the contraction of credits and, mainly, to detect the role of taking care of oneself and of others in the situation of over-indebtedness. It is considered that these findings will be relevant for the establishment or improvement of a National Care Policy, currently under discussion in Brazil, and/or actions to renegotiate the population's debts, such as "Desenrola Brasil".