ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 global crisis and the “stay-home” response taken by most governments has starkly exposed the dependence of formal economies on the invisible and unpaid care labor of women – a dependence that has intensified during the pandemic as public childcare provision and schools are shut and parents work from home. This article focuses specifically on the childcare and income support provided by grandparents in the United Kingdom and South Africa. In undertaking this comparative analysis the study demonstrates the universality of intergenerational interdependence and the contextual specificity of grandparental childcare and income provision, as well as the differential impacts of suspending, or risking, such supports during the pandemic. Grandparents within and across households make substantial contributions to economic, social, and affective lives, and the study argues for greater recognition of these crucial contributions and the development of a more intersectional understanding of the provision of care work.

HIGHLIGHTS

• COVID-19 has highlighted grandparents’ key contributions to society as part of intergenerational support.

• In the UK, suspension of grandparents’ informal childcare exposed gaps in formal childcare provision.

• In South Africa, grandparents maintained caregiving roles in multigenerational households, despite health risks.

• Grandparents’ contributions must be recognized, reevaluated, and reprioritized in government recovery planning.

摘要

COVID-19全球危机和大多数政府采取的“呆在家里”的应对措施，已经使正规经济对妇女无形和无偿照料劳动力的依赖暴露无遗，这种依赖在大流行期间由于提供公共育儿和上学而加剧了关门，父母在家工作。本文特别关注英国和南非的祖父母提供的育儿和收入支持。在进行这项比较分析时，研究表明了代际相互依存的普遍性以及祖父母育儿和收入提供的背景特殊性，以及在大流行期间暂停或冒险提供此类支持的不同影响。家庭内部和家庭之间的祖父母为经济，社会，

强调

• COVID-19强调了祖父母对社会的重要贡献，这是代际支持的一部分。

• 在英国，祖父母的非正式托儿服务的中止暴露了正式托儿服务方面的差距。

• 在南非，尽管有健康风险，祖父母仍在多代家庭中担任看护角色。

• 祖父母的捐款必须在政府恢复计划中得到确认，重新评估和重新安排优先级。