Hello everyone,
My name is Alexis Kim and I am a rising sophomore in the School of Foreign Service. I am majoring in international political economy, minoring in women’s and gender studies, and earning a certificate in diplomatic studies.
This summer, I’m excited to engage in research on eldercare in East Asia with Professor You-me Park of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University. Existing scholarly feminist literature discusses the devalorization of care labor, especially compared to valorized, profit-earning positions. This literature focuses on how eldercare is neglected because it has no “positive” ending: the best one can hope for is a long life followed by death. Additionally, women are forced to care for aging family members at the peak of their careers, and I seek to explore the social and economic implications of women leaving the workforce to provide care.
Eldercare is a pertinent issue globally, but the effects are especially pronounced in East Asian countries, where elderly populations continue to grow while childbirth rates fall. As the aging population grows in size and elders live longer due to scientific advancements, the issue of eldercare has become increasingly pressing for Asian families. Due to ideals of filial piety and unique multi-generational Asian households, the burden of eldercare often falls on female family members who are forced to trade their “productive” jobs for care labor. Furthermore, elders in the West and their families hire caretakers, who are often elderly Asian immigrants themselves. Although there are currently many proposed “solutions” that focus on increasing eldercare capacity and infrastructure in Asia, these plans fail to note that these “economic” solutions to the eldercare issue have failed in Western societies.
By exploring the critical — yet often neglected — East Asian region, I intend to explore the economic and social impact of aging populations in Asian societies through the lens of female caretakers. To answer my research question, I will conduct a literature review of scholarship on feminist perspectives on eldercare and analysis of economic and demographic data of Asian countries. Depending on the replies I receive, I also plan to conduct interviews with women from Asian countries or experts in the field of eldercare.
I am extremely excited to learn more about everyone’s unique research projects! Please feel free to reach out, and I look forward to meeting everyone at the retreat!