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TITLE:
Friendship Networks and Care
AUTHOR(S):
E. Kay Trimberger
DOCUMENT TYPE: Article
E. Kay Trimberger is an affiliate at the Center for Working Families and a sociologist and professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at Sonoma State University.
Working Paper No. 31
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ABSTRACT:
Based on her own research and a survey of both quantitative and qualitative social research, the author demonstrates the importance of care by a network of friends for the elderly, the seriously ill, single adults, singles mothers and in times of crisis. Although women predominate as friends who care, the response of gay men to the AIDS epidemic demonstrates that such care does not have to be gender specific. The author discusses the limits of such informal care, and argues for greater cultural recognition of care by friends as distinct from family, and for changes in social policy.