Intergenerational Care, Intersectional Feminism and Reproductive Justice

Intergenerational care is a key concern for families and communities grappling with the dilemmas of providing care for young children and aging parents in countries such as the United States with little to no institutional safety net for either childcare or elder care. Yet, discussions of reproductive health and reproductive justice, rarely, if ever, address the intersectional inequalities of engaging in both paid and unpaid care work. This paper reflects on collaborative research with Asian immigrant women employed in California’s homecare industry over the past ten years to better understand the critical nexus among intergenerational care, intersectional feminism, and reproductive justice. In particular, I focus on collective efforts by labor unions and community organizations to improve the working conditions of Chinese, Korean, and Filipinx women workers who provide co-ethnic elder care in low-paid, socially devalued, and highly precarious homecare jobs in Los Angeles. What does the social and institutional organization of home-based elder care reveal about the multi-level dynamics that shape care provisioning for immigrant elders in intergenerational families? What is the role of labor unions and community organizations in challenging inequalities that are simultaneously intimate and systemic? How might feminist frameworks of intersectionality and reproductive justice be applied to better understand the horizons of more just and sustainable approaches to intergenerational care?