From The New York Times, September 18, 2013

When it comes to taking care of aging mothers, biology is destiny. Or, to be more precise, biology plus geography equals destiny. Or, to quote The Shirelles circa 1961, if you’re the daughter who lives closest when your mother needs help: “Baby, it’s you.” We’ve known for a long time that despite decades of social change, elder care remains largely a female task. Most studies find that women account for about two-thirds of caregivers. We know it can be a very tough job. But there’s a lot about how certain women wind up becoming caregivers that we don’t know. “There’s all this research on the effects of caregiving on people and virtually nothing about who is the one who winds up doing it,” said Karl Pillemer, a gerontologist at Cornell University. “Why does Jane become the caregiver when Billy and Betty don’t?” Read more