Resumen

JIMENEZ-PELCASTRE, Araceli; ROMERO-PLANA, Virginia  y  ORTIZ-AVILA, Elsa. Exhaustion and violence in caregiving: Grandparenting among women in Hidalgo, Mexico. Íconos [online]. 2025, n.82, pp.77-95. ISSN 1390-8065.  https://doi.org/10.17141/iconos.82.2025.6350.

This paper analyzes the burnout and violence against women in their role as grandmothers caring for granddaughters and grandsons in the absence of migrant mothers and fathers. This qualitative case study was developed through interviews with 48 grandmother caregivers living in the northeastern region of Hidalgo, Mexico. This area is characterized by rural poverty and social exclusion. The cross-cutting categories of gender, age, economic dependence, ethnicity and health were employed in the analysis. The results show that this type of intergenerational support for caregiving is framed within women’s gender mandates and is part of a “natural” responsibility. Failing to fulfill this role implies exposing oneself to family and public judgment. It can also be argued that social inequalities, economic gaps, and discrimination subject grandmothers in this region to heavy physical and emotional wear and tear in their “obligation” to carry out the upbringing of their granddaughters and grandsons. This text demonstrates the ways in which gender violence is replicated in family contexts, the ineffectiveness of social policy in contexts of poverty, and the social exclusion faced by older women from rural areas and Indigenous communities.

Palabras clave : grandmothers; intergenerational support; care; families; poverty; gender violence..

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