Are women naturally better caregivers than men? Can paid care in an institutuion be good care? Can voluntary community care replace government welfare? Is the caring family disappearing? What role should government play in supporting or regulating families? Is day care for children as good as home care? Using engaging case studies and research findings, this lively new book from the Gender Lens Series explores these and other questions and controversies, challenging the notion that caregiving is a "natural" pattern and demonstrating how it is thoroughly social. Written in an inviting and readable style, the authors address complex issues about caring, making them accessible to undergraduate students and lay people. The book shows those who will enter diverse caregiving professions how to see their particular occupation as influenced by the larger society and broader social relations of caring. It also shows how beliefs about gender and family shape caregiving, and how caregiving affects gender inequality.