Formal and informal care work in the hierarchy of occupational prestige

Abstract

The hierarchy of occupational prestige is a valuable source of information about society’s values. Unfortunately, in existing research, care work is mostly absent. For my PhD thesis I therefore conduct research on the new meanings of occupational prestige in care work, with a research plan based on a mixed-mode explanatory sequence design. It consists of quantitative research (desk research, PAPI questionnaire and media analysis) and a second, qualitative stage. On the basis of the quantitative research I identified occupational groups of high prestige, among which were elderly-care assistants. In the second stage I conducted qualitative interviews with an interview scenario focused on occupational prestige and identity, including such issues as relations between work and private life, and gender differences.