Care is inexorably crossed by gender, generating a problem of inequality and naturalization of these. This systematic review investigates the academic knowledge generated about unpaid and family care work in Ibero-America, showing its main perspectives and contents, and the gender factors associated with them. We consulted five databases, considering empirical articles published between 2009 and 2014, indexed ISI, SCOPUS and SCIELO, in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The final sample consisted of 51 articles, subjected to frequency and percentage analysis, and qualitative content analysis. The results show the predominance of the biomedical perspective in understanding care, and the lack of reflective exercise around the understanding of it. We discuss the need to position care as the central axis of human life, reorganizing and collecting socially.