This paper draws from the analysis of the political process of the creation of the Informal Caregiver Status in Portugal, which took place between 2016 and 2019. Looking into the main measures that were debated, exploring how they were justified and envisioned by the political actors and organisations (of carers and cared for people) involved in the call for the statute, we analyse how cultural ideas about the role of the family in the long-term care (LTC) system shaped the discussion and the choice of measures for the Status. In Portugal, the late creation of a welfare state, the strong influence of Catholicism's social doctrine and the historical centrality of a traditional idea of women as providers of care and well-being in the family prevented investment in the development of public care services. Given political, economic and social pressures to reorganise public care policies, supporting informal care is emerging as a sustainable alternative. Despite a consensus about a necessary transition for more home and community care-based services and the need for recognition of informal care, the debate was dominated by the tension between different political-ideological perspectives on the role of informal care in the LTC system. We found in the discussion and in the formulation of this policy a persistence of familialistic traits and a non-problematization of gender inequality.

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