Creating Caring Societies

Rethinking Care Justice and the Politics of Care

Bibliographic Data

ID21189209
AuthorsRossella Ciccia (0000-0001-6745-737X, University of Oxford, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume22
Issue2
Pages1-6
Publication date2026-06-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics & Gender (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1743-923X • E-ISSN: 1743-9248
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1743923x26100841
OpenAlexW7165935920
LanguageEN
References cited34

The social organization of care refers to the institutions, norms, and practices that govern the distribution of caring responsibilities and access to caring resources in unequal ways (Glenn 2000; 2012). There is compelling evidence that everywhere women still do the bulk of unpaid care work and that this restricts their opportunities to participate in economic and political life. These inequalities further spill over into the wider economy as many care occupations are poorly paid and predominantly filled by racialized and immigrant women, as well as women from less privileged socioeconomic backgrounds. Feminist scholarship demonstrates that care is not only an issue in its own right. It also lies at the heart of many other political phenomena from the development of welfare states (Ciccia and Sainsbury 2018; Gordon 1991; Koven and Michel 2013), to democratic backsliding and the rise of far-right parties (Briggs 2018; Farris and Rottenberg 2017; Meguid et al. 2025), to the politics of race, immigration, and same-sex families (Ayoub and Stoeckl 2024; Ferree 2021; Hancock 2004). Therefore, the social organization of care is a root cause of gender and intersecting inequalities

Care work · Democracy · Economic Justice · Inequality · Politics · Scholarship · Socioeconomic status · Welfare · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Social Policy and Reform Studies · Social Work Education and Practice

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