Make appointments, monitoring of treatments, payment of consultations or administrative tasks are largely assumed by mothers.
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“Health care or monitoring is an invisible, but fundamental daily task.” Françoise, 68, retired geologist, recognizes it: she has always “managed the health of [her] two children” alone ” , then that of his parents. She analyzes her as follows: “My partner turned away from these concerns, even if he felt concerned. It weighed me, because he was resting a lot on me. He knew that” I assured “and it allowed him to Never integrate into your schedule the slightest medical meeting of your children. “
As in the case of Françoise, the mental burden represented by the appointment and the medical follow-up of children largely weighs on the female shoulders. On Doctolib, in 2021, 81 % of the meetings made for a minor were reserved by women. This theme was also the subject, in February 2022, of a Survey ordered in OpinionWay by the Qare teleconsultation platform. One of the major lessons in this study: women are more involved in home management, in time and money. Indeed, 67 % of them believe they are the main parent who takes care of all children’s medical tasks, a proportion that rises to 82 % in CSP +; And 12 % devote more than 100 euros per month for health spending (against 9 % in men).
For Doctor Julie Salomon, pediatrician and director of Qare, a structural phenomenon asked not only studied, but also qualified with the adequate term: “The vast majority of our patients being women between 20 and 50 years old, We wanted to know if the latter assumed what we decided to name the “medical charge” [namely the mental charge linked to the monitoring of the health of the family]. With this survey, we found that this phenomenon n ‘ was not limited to our teleconsultation activity. “This theme is not new. In 1995, the sociologist Geneviève Cresson already studied domestic health work (L’Harmattan), which consists of a variety of “invisible” tasks mainly assumed by women to maintain family members in good shape. What has changed today is the sensitivity to this type of theme, in a context where the unequal distribution of tasks (housewives, educational …) is questioned.
almost military organization
To assume this “medical office”, many mothers explain to set up an almost military organization. Valérie Clech, 52, HRD and mother of two children today major, says: “My husband often being on the go, and having a position of responsibility myself, I came to manage all the information and the dates of medical obligations on an Excel file (one tab per child, one for me and one for my husband) to remember the last dental control, the last smear or the last taking of antibiotics. When my father’s health S ‘is degraded, I added a tab… it’s stressful, but I have the feeling that health is part of my role as mother. “
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