Neither Soldiers Nor Angels: Putting Care Workers into Context
The Frameworks Institute is busy reframing care work to push for better conditions, protections, and pay.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented public and media attention to care work, shining a spotlight on the workers who provide hands-on care to older people and people with disabilities. This attention has come with an increased recognition of the importance of care work. In summer 2020, we set out to explore if and how public thinking on care work would change during this time.
Now, nearly three years in, we are looking at the latest findings with one particular question in mind: Has the salience of care work and the appreciation of frontline workers we saw during the pandemic remained high despite the decrease in public attention to COVID-19? The answer is yes—but with an important twist.