Restructuring of Gender in the Field of Care-work

<p>The number of male workers has increased in the “female-dominated occupations” of care facilities in Japan. At the same time, male care workers tend to hold better job positions than their female counterparts. This paper elucidates the process by which the idea of “care as a female job” is replaced by “male being an ideal worker” in care facilities under the marketization of welfare, thus, reproducing socio-economical male domination. Focus is placed on the practices of “hegemonic masculinities” performing bodies that work long hours. The ideal of “tailor-made care” under long-term care insurance（LTCI）requires care workers to engage in self-sacrificing care practices that have been traditionally performed by women at home. However, as “self-sacrificing professionals” are also required to work long hours in care facilities, the situation demonstrates “hegemonic masculinities” performing bodies that work long hours. Male workers who work long hours can easily obtain managerial positions under the management, based on the model of “self-sacrificing professionals” ; contrarily, the practice of “hegemonic masculinities” performing bodies that work long hours has not been connected with workersʼ “skills,” and part-time workers are also entitled to be managers at the care facility which eliminates the ideal of self-sacrificing professionals by outsourcing the night shift to other workers. This means that “local” practices might change the existing male domination if many workplaces allow this kind of “undoing gender.” However, practices of “doing gender,” through which men are regarded as “ideal workers,” are repeated in many marketized care facilities. The marketization of welfare facilitates the use of the skills of female workers with lower pay and status than male workers, and sets back the feminist goal of the valuation of female care-work.</p>