This article explores the care that husbands in Accra, Ghana, provide for
wives who have been diagnosed with cancer. Making use of an inductive, qualitative
approach, the study analyzes observations of and in-depth ethnographic interviews
conducted with five married female cancer patients and their husbands over a
ten-month period. The results suggest a strong association among husbands’ care,
wives’ responses to husbands’ care, and cultural ideals of femininity and masculinity.
The findings suggest that husbands’ selective and often limited gender-based investments
in unpaid care work make their sick wives exceedingly vulnerable in a context in
which care for the terminally ill takes place predominately in familial settings.