How does the EU frame gender and care of fragile, older people? Polyphony, Tensions and silencing

Care has traditionally been considered as belonging to the nation state and the family, where EU as an institution has not interfered. However, old age care is since 2017 a right according to § 18 of the European pillar of social rights, and in 2022 EU launched an ambitious, new care strategy covering older, fragile persons.
We investigate the way the political problem of old age and care for fragile, older people is understood in EU, and the needs identified through a feminist discursive policy analysis (Dahl, 2000; Bacchi, 2009; Bacchi and Goodwin, 2017; Fraser, 1989). Our analysis focuses upon problematization, care needs, intersectionality, and silencing. It identifies the way the greying of the population and old age care has been politicized and emerged as a new policy field within the EU. It poses the following research question: In what way has ageing and care for older, fragile people been framed as a political problem in EU policy papers?
The empirical material consists of policy papers and reports by European Commission, Council of the European Union and European Parliament. We identify a polyphonic discourse that includes feminist elements and gender stereotypes, as well as silencing. It applies neoliberal rationales with paternalistic elements.