Caregiving - More than Just a Woman's Issue - Kingwood

By: CoachJHickman

Published: Jul 28, 2011, 12:00pm

The majority of family caregivers are female; often the daughter. It is usually, by geographical default, the daughter that lives closest to her elderly parents. There are other caregivers, too, including mothers of disabled children and spouses. It is

I had the opportunity to attend the Houston Summit for Women Entrepreneurs this past week, held at the Houston Community College Southeast Campus.

During our small group break-out discussions, the SBA regional director asked what were the biggest challenges that women in business are facing?

My answer to her question brought a hush, then nods, and finally a round of applause and encouragement for action. Here's my answer:

"The biggest challenge facing women in business is that we are caregivers. In my professional career in both corporate and consulting worlds, the number of women who are responsible for caring for some family member while holding down a full-time career (whether a FT employee or FT business owner) is astronomical, but not surprising. Our roles and responsibilties as nurturing breadwinners means that we are struggling to meet the demands of business while meeting the demands of caregiving to our infant or school-age children, disabled adult children, disabled spouse or elderly parent(s). The time, energy and dollars spent toward our family care is what prevents many of these same resources from going back into our businesses. Until we can have assistance in our roles as primary caregivers, our challenges in business will continue."

The room was hushed, then heads nodded, and then erupted into applause. The small group then went to work with the SBA director to draft a recommendation to take to Washington on our behalf to do just that.

I'm not naive to think that just one meeting can make a difference, but I am hopeful that Washington is listening. I do know that one voice can make a difference and there are plenty of historical references attributing turning points to a single person.

I encourage you to send your voice out. Write/call our governmental representatives and let's get heard...in larger numbers. This is not a women's issue - this is a larger social issue that impacts everyone. If women are the caregivers, then they should be supported with assistance for home health care to alleviate some of the burden, particularly for home-based businesses.

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