The Female Caregiver

The aging process requires a lot of help.  Many elders look to the younger generations in their families to help them and support them, however it seems that in the African American community, the caregiver role has become a fulltime job.  Especially for African American females, research has show that compared to their Caucasian counterparts

Informal caregiving, or non-professional, unpaid care occurs in 29.4%* of Black families in the United States, compared to 24% of White households.

These numbers, although they may seem only very slightly stratified, prove to be very hindering on the African American female.  Whereas white women tend to care for their immediate families only, African American women are likely to take care of their immediate families, as well as distant relatives and even individuals not related to them at all.  These women are certainly doing a great service to those individuals, however, studies have proven that the effects of this caregiving on the caregiver are very damaging to the African American woman’s wellbeing.

According to NAC, African-American women caregivers are more likely to experience physical strain (19%), emotional stress, and experience financial hardships (63%).

Because these individuals are overexerting their energy on positions that offer very little benefits financially, studies have proven that these women caregivers are usually hold no higher than a high school level education, if they reached that far in school at all, and have a household income level extremely close to the poverty rate. 

African American women take on their caregiver role for a number of reasons.  Firstly, their culture has taught them that they are almost required to act that role.  They are told at a young age where their places were to be in society and in their immediate families, that often times, it is difficult for them to break through those molds.  Feeling trapped in such a confined position can be detrimental to the emotional and physical status of African American women, many have found prayer and expressing their distress to their family and friends to be very beneficial.