The meanings of gender and the home space for recipients of palliative care, and some implications for social workers in the field

Abstract

This article explores the occupation of gendered spaces on the part of four men and four women journeying through palliative care. Drawing on ethnographic and interview data focussing on participants’ experiences with cancer, the authors analyse patients’ engagement with gendered concepts and activities surrounding either the home space, or intentional efforts to be away from the home space. Participants were followed from referral to a community palliative care team until the point of death. This article reports on one part of a larger ethnographic study by Hughes (2009) that examines the context and culture of palliative care, and the important role of social work for such care, from the perspectives of these eight terminally ill people and their extended family/whanau. All participant names cited are pseudonyms.