Double Responsibilities of Care in East Asia

The aim of this paper is to explore how experiences of emerging female sandwich generations are shaped by policy configuration, social and cultural contexts and their personal/family relationships in selected East Asian societies - Hong Kong, Korea, Japan and Taiwan -. The ageing of population, the decrease in average number of siblings and the rising average age of mothers at the time of child bearing, all to suggest that new types of sandwich generations who simultaneously provide care for their frail elderly relatives as well as young children/grandchildren may increasingly become common in developed countries. East Asian societies are not exceptions. More over double responsibility of care may possibly be more prevalent in East Asia than other European counterparts as facing with acute demographic changes and different family values embedded in the societies.  Through the comparative analysis of data generated from mixed research methods in each society, this paper will investigate how these sandwich generations experience a double responsibility of care, by analysing resources available to them from local policy configurations and from their personal and kin networks. The research will highlight increasing new risks emerging in East Asian societies in relation to women’s citizenship, care, work and generational relations.