FRIDAY, Oct. 23, 2026 (HealthDay News) — The caregiving gap between women and men is growing, with women devoting an increasing number of years to caring for aging family members or friends, a new study says.
U.S. women can expect to provide seven years of caregiving over their lifetimes as of 2023, up from an estimated six in 2011, researchers reported Oct. 20 in the Journals of Gerontology: Series B.
That amounts to three more years than provided by men, whose lifetime caregiving held steady at four years, researchers found.
"These findings are not limited to one type of assistance," said lead researcher Vicki Freedman, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.
"Rather, for each type of care we examined — from bathing or dressing to providing rides — we found women could expect to spend more years over their lifetimes than men caring for an older adult,” she said in a news release.
For the new study, researchers analyzed nearly 8,500 responses to the National Study of Caregiving, an ongoing survey of Medicare enrollees 65 and older.
Results showed that a caregiving gap not only exists between women and men, but that it grew over the previous decade.
This gap does not apply to spouses caring for each other, researchers said. Men and women can both expect to spend about 1.5 years on average during their lifetime caring for a husband, wife or partner.
But the gap does extend to other common relationships.
Women can expect to provide more than one extra year of care for a parent, and several more months for a grandparent, researchers found.
Women also can expect to spend more than an additional year caring for extended family and friends.
Overall, the number of family caregivers assisting seniors 65 and older jumped from 18 million in 2011 to more than 24 million in recent years, researchers said.
"Millions of adults help an older relative or friend manage their daily activities and the numbers of men and women in this role are growing rapidly in the U.S.," Freedman said.
"Despite attention to the growing number of men taking on caregiving responsibilities, the gap in lifetime family caregiving has not closed between men and women in recent years,” she added.
It’s likely that more and more caregivers will be needed in the coming years, researchers said.
"Given growing numbers of older adults without close kin and increasing care needs among those reaching later life, we may see these gaps between men and women continue to grow in the future," Freedman said. "But future caregiving patterns will depend on many factors, including changes to families, the availability and affordability of paid care, and social norms that may influence who provides support."
More information
Harvard Medical School has more on America’s caregiving crisis.
SOURCE: University of Michigan, news release, Oct. 21, 2026
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