Empowering or depleting womens work? Public sector reform and small-scale entrepreneurship in Swedish eldercare

This chapter critically explores assumptions underpinning Swedish eldercare policies that small-scale entrepreneurship advances women’s and immigrants’ position in the economy. In contrast, the chapter shows that small-scale entrepreneurship in Swedish home care, in various ways, causes harm to women and immigrant business operators. The harm can be summarised in three main points; (1) small-scale entrepreneurship deprives women and immigrant business operators of financial resources; (2) small-scale entrepreneurship contributes to the undervaluation of care work performed by women and immigrants; and (3) small-scale entrepreneurship particularly harms immigrant women, who are not only deprived of financial resources but also drained of emotional and physical resources. Therefore, the chapter concludes that, in practice, small-scale entrepreneurship in Swedish eldercare transfers risks and responsibilities for care services back to individual women, which is a complete reversal of how the Swedish state hitherto has supported gender equality.