Care and Help

We distinguished the following types of care and help: doing small jobs

for others, caring for the sick or the elderly, giving psychological support,

helping people to move, helping with transport (e.g., transporting

children to and from school), and participating in (unpaid) management

or administrative activities. Again, women are the ones who care

and help the most. Doing small jobs and helping people to move are

activities more often performed by men, but women offer all other types

of care or help more frequently than men do. As was the case with hospitality,

offering care or help does not necessarily or mainly spring from

altruistic motives. The motives lie scattered on an imaginary scale of

altruism: from selflessly wanting to contribute to the well-being of other

people, without any expectations of return, to reciprocally exchanging

help or helping as a compensation for being helped oneself, to keeping a

sharp eye as to whether the debt balance is not pending too much to one

side. You are helping other people, knowing that you will be helped in

return.