Trabajo de cuidado: mercantilización y desvalorización

Abstract

Based on the conceptual turn of care that has taken place in the last decade in Latin America, this article presents, for the Colombian case, the increasing commodification of care activities and argues that this process has not only been highly feminized but has also led to new forms of devaluation of care and women’s work. In general, this process is evidenced in the domestic service of paid care in family and, specifically, in the work of institutionalized care of the elderly, based on both quantitative and qualitative sources. It is argued that despite changes in the modalities of domestic service provision and the advance in the professionalization of the institutionalized care of elderly, the commodification has led to a devaluation of the work of caregivers, which in turn affects the exercise and development of the ethics of care.