Gender Roles, Marital Intimacy, and Nomination of Spouse as Primary Caregiver

Using data from a sample of married men and women undergoing treatment for cancer, we tested two potential hypotheses for the unequal representation of husbands and wives as spousal caregivers, including societal gender role norms and emotional closeness in the marital relationship. Multivariate analyses support both hypotheses; wives are only one third as likely as husbands to select their spouses as caregivers, and spouses who name their mates as confidants are three times more likely than those who do not to also name them as caregivers. We conclude that although gender role norms are key to caregiver selection, the intimacy inherent in the caregiving role renders an emotionally close marriage an important criterion to the selection of spouse as caregiver.