Economics and care work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Economics and care work - Essay Example The dynamics of care work have changed from the care work practices provided in the Victorian period. Economic conditions during the Victorian era were quite harsh. Middle-class men worked like machine to earn livelihood and their desire to return home after hard labor was fructified by the comforting home environment provided with the home care efforts and artful handling of the home sphere by the ladies working whole day providing needed care to all members of the family. Relationship between the middle class spouses was based on mutual trust of exchanging and sharing gifts unlike the â€Å"crass† (Nelson, 2006). The Victorian ideology was not a totally correct presentation of the economic life; the lower class underwent all the harshness of economic reasoning of working as labor in shops along with their children over time without any additional wages. Thus, in the Victorian times, the ideology of â€Å"angel in the house† put curtains on the job of running a home and exploitation of the poor women and children by increasing industrialization (Nelson, 2006). Nuns used to perform care work out of religious bonding or until they got married. Theme of charity was behind most of care provided to the needy and under-privileged by nuns, single women and married women with earning husbands. It was assumed that nurses, healthcare workers, foster parents, and child care providers felt emotionally charged and motivated in Victorian times but the same legacy has led to believe in the wrong notions that people either work for money or freely out of love and compassion (Nelson, 2006). Care work is perceived by society to be done with the profit motive only, as is evident from the reference to the foster care provided by Rosa Fernandez who takes care of two foster children besides her own two children. Irony of the care providing mother is that she develops kinship with the foster children and her attachment while nurturing them creates a bonding although she is being paid for the care work she is providing but she will miss the children when taken aw ay by the lawyers and the case workers for adoption. There are not only emotional but financial constraints if the children are taken out of the foster care. Difference between a foster parent and a case worker and lawyer, as told by Rosa Fernandez to the sociologist, Teresa Toguchi Swartz, is that money is the leading motive of the case workers and lawyers irrespective of the welfare interest of the children (Nelson, 2006). This case shows that Rosa and her family is related and attached to the children under her foster care because of economic and at the same time ethical considerations. The social service providers overlook the love angle between the foster children and Rosa and assume that money is the only motive of the foster care provided by Rosa. They are least caring about the financial compulsions of the working-class people who would bear the pangs of separation from the child as their love is reciprocal; the child would also feel the loss of separation likewise Rosa and her family (Nelson, 2006). The crucial question that arises here is that is it possible to be inspired by love and money both. Some care workers acceptance of monetary help does not mean that they are not kind-hearted because they have accepted money and â€Å"commodified† the transaction. Here, the issue of motivation and care becomes crucial not only to be decided in care work but in any job taken to earn money (Nelson, 2006). Motivation being the significant factor in providing free care in the Victorian era, it could be either intrinsic motivation or extrinsic motivation. Both these are crucial and basic elements of motivation theory, which says that it is non-spatial irrespective of the rewards accruing from intrinsic motivation elements or extrinsic elements although the issue of motivation is quite personal and difficult (The Happy Manager, 2011). When care work provides intangible rewards, it is because they are inspired from within and, therefore, highly