Unending Work and Care

It is, I suppose, one of the ironies of social science that the more information one acquires about a subject the less sure one can be of the truth. When reviewing the research literature on informal care in 1984 it was possible to assert, with relatively little fear of contradiction, that informal care was provided almost exclusively by women, that all of them cared out of a sense of duty or obligauon, that service providers discriminated against carers on the grounds of their sex, and so on (Parker 1985). The clutch of publications which form the basis of this article raise question marks about at least some of these previously held assumptions while contributing to or strengthening our knowledge about other aspects of caring. The range of types of publication under consideration tells us much about the importance of informal care as a current issue. There can be few topics in the social policy field which in so short a period have generated so much information — from large-scale population surveys (Green, Arber and Gilbert), in-depth, qualitative studies (Lewis and Meredith, Ungerson), and straight description (Hicks) — while at the same time producing a closely argued, theoretical analysis of the ideologies which underlie the provision of care (Dalley) and what amounts to a 'how-to-do-it' guide (Orton). Between them the authors have covered probably every important aspect of caring: how many people are doing it (Green); who they are (Arber and