• Author/ Authors

  Teddy Nagaddya, Ruth Brookman, Olivia Maurice, Celia B Harris

• Suggested citation (APA 7th edition)

  Nagaddya T., Brookman R., Maurice O. and Harris C.B.. Power, class, and gender in dementia care: Stories of carer precariousness from culturally and linguistically diverse female family carers in Australia. Dementia. 2025;0(0). doi:10.1177/14713012251342059

Long Summary

Dementia care provision is a global challenge. However, dynamics to provide care to a family member living with dementia in their home are far more complex. Evidence suggests that dementia care among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities is largely offered by family members within communities. But at a family level, care happens at the intersection of unequal gender relations, complex cultural constructions of dementia, and longstanding family values and traditions. While these dynamics show the intersection of power, class, and gender, these aspects have not gained widespread currency in dementia policy plans. Yet they shape the identities and social positioning of carers and consequently carer precariousness. This article reveals that the role of caring for family members living with dementia is embedded in complex power structures that stigmatise the identities of carers and those cared for, reproduces gendered social hierarchies, exacerbate economic uncertainties, and diminish the merits of filial piety - a valued cultural practice. By centering the voices of female carers from a CALD background, the authors highlight the need for policymakers to devote particular attention to how the intersection of the diverse cultural environments with dementia care at a family level induce carer insecurities and vulnerabilities - precariousness. This calls for an emancipatory dementia policy agenda that values the lived experiences of female carers’ cumulative disadvantage over the course of providing care.

Author's / Publisher's Contact Details:

t.nagaddya@westernsydney.edu.au