Unmasking the ‘elderly mystique’: Why it is time to make the personal political in ageing research (original) (raw)
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Journal of the British Academy, 2023
How do we tackle the enduring prejudice against the very idea of old age, resulting in the habitual marginalisation and disparagement of the elderly by people of all ages, including old people themselves? It remains a challenge, especially knowing that women have always been aged by culture, and frequently discarded in their public and personal lives, far faster than men. However, in this wide-ranging collection the diverse authors help us to subvert the troubling ties between ageism and sexism, showing how we can instead deliver far more complex narratives of the ageing lives and experiences of all old people.
"Ageism and Feminism: From 'Et Cetera' to Center
NWSA Journal, 2006
Although women's studies scholars and activists do not deny the reality of ageism, they have relegated it to secondary status, neglecting to theorize age relations or place old age at the center of analysis. After explaining what we mean by age relations and their intersections with other inequalities, we discuss the ways in which old people are oppressed, and why age relations represent a political location that needs to be addressed in its own right. We then demonstrate ways in which feminist theories and activism might change if the focus shifted to old people.
Journal of Aging Studies, 2008
As a feminist sociologist and gerontologist, I am aware that life and work intersect, with one arena providing fodder, challenge, or impetus for reflection upon the other. I explore those links consciously in this essay, finding some of the earlier tensions that have marked my intellectual and personal life resolved while others maintain their importance. In particular, I have experienced greater acceptance of feminist work and feel a part of a community of scholars; at the same time, I continue to struggle with the deeper levels of ageism in society, both within the disciplines in which I work and within myself.
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Discourses on old age and ageing are framed in narrow and binary ways, either as a decline narrative or through discourses of positive and successful ageing. The decline narrative, on the one hand, is highly centred on the decline of the ageing body as frail, leaky and unbounded, and on how old age is characterised by non-productivity, increasing passivity and dependency. Discourses on successful ageing, on the other hand, rely heavily on neo-liberal imperatives of activity, autonomy and responsibility. In successful ageing, the specificities of ageing bodies are largely overlooked while the capacity of the old person to retain a youthful body, for example, with the aid of sexuopharmaceuticals, is celebrated. This article argues for the need of a theorising of old age that goes beyond the binaries of decline and success. Drawing on the work of feminist corpomaterialists Rosi Braidotti and Elisabeth Grosz, the article proposes affirmative old age as an alternative conceptualisation of old age.
Multiple Marginalizations Based on Age: Gendered Ageism and Beyond
This chapter offers a theoretical contribution to the discussions revolving around multiple marginalisations based on age. The focus is especially on the concept of gendered ageism, and its potential to highlight the processes and practices of marginalisation. Based on the understanding of age as a socio-cultural practice of doing privilege, subordination and inequality, we rework the existing conceptualisations of multiple marginalisations and of gendered ageism. The understanding of ageism as a form of doing enmeshed in the interlocking power structures draws attention to the importance of socio-cultural, spatial and temporal contexts and the dynamics involved in the creation and reproduction of social reality, including social inequalities. This chapter draws on a wide range of existing studies to illustrate and explain this new approach. It concludes with an outline of an applicable research programme to multiple marginalisations that yields novel ways of exploring multiple inequalities in later life and gendered ageism more specifically.
Critical Questions for Ageing Societies, by Gemma M. Carney and Paul Nash
Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal
While in the fields of critical, cultural and humanistic gerontology scholars have been highly skeptical of widespread concerns about "population ageing", an "alarmist demography" (Katz 2002) (see also Katz 2022 in this issue) continues to dominate both political and cultural discourses in the global north, and increasingly in the global south. Addressing contemporary concerns about "population aging," Critical Questions for Ageing Societies challenges dominant understandings of demographic changes in terms of a "demographic time-bomb" (18). Approaching the topic from a poststructuralist perspective, the book interrogates how older age and aging are socially constructed through cultural and political discourses and concludes that "the problem is not aging itself, it is that we use age to structure social, economic and political life in a way that is neither efficient nor effective" (7). A feminist approach is distinct throughout the book in ways that foreground gender, other inequalities, and their intersections. Focusing on the social and political contexts of the UK and USA, the book offers a solution-based approach, suggesting practical strategies directed toward restructuring society and the welfare system, with a concentration on rising to the challenges-and embracing the opportunities-resulting from contemporary demographic changes. For example, they suggest that policy focused on 'extending working lives' needs to provide attractive opportunities for older workers, as well as tackle ageism in the workplace. Another suggestion is to create more effective partnerships between public and private care providers, as well as to move away from a regional care strategy to a national one in order to provide consistency in, and equal distribution of, care. Structured as a textbook for an undergraduate audience, the book is divided into selfcontained chapters that address some of the questions students have asked the authors over the years, such as: "All old people are pretty much the same, aren't they? (Ch. 5)," "Why do older people have it so good? (Ch. 7)," and "Will I ever have enough money to retire? (Ch. 3)." The topics of the chapters are population aging (Ch. 1), ageism and ageist stereotypes (Ch. 2), retirement and active aging (Ch. 3), elder care (Ch. 4), diversity in the older population (Ch. 5), gender and aging (Ch. 6), the myth of generational conflict (Ch. 7), political demography (Ch. 8), and cultural gerontology (Ch. 9), with a final chapter
Social Science Research Network, 2022
According to estimates based on data compiled and analyzed by the World Bank, the global population of women aged 65 and over as of 2020 was 397 million (an increase of 106 million from a decade earlier), representing 55% of the total global population of persons aged 65 and over (722 million) and 10.35% of the world’s total female population (compared to 8.5% a decade earlier). In 2009, the UN projected that the number of older women living in less developed regions would increase by 600 million within the period 2010 to 2050. When just five years is added to the definition of “older women” the size of the group becomes even more impressive, with data showing that the global population of women age 60+ was 605 million as of 2020 and is expected to reach 1.14 billion by 2050. The World Health Organization has called the “feminization of aging” one of the central challenges to be addressed by its program of “active aging”, noting that while women have the advantage in length of life, they are more likely than men to experience domestic violence and discrimination in access to education, income, food, meaningful work, health care, inheritances, social security measures and political power, and thus more likely than men to be poor and to suffer disabilities in older age. The UN Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of All Human Rights by Older Persons has observed that the combination of ageism and sexism has a unique and aggravating effect on discrimination and inequality which leads to older women being disproportionately affected by some health conditions, including depression, and suffering from the impact of gender inequalities in older age that manifest in multiple aspects, including legal status, access and control of property and land, access to credit, and inheritance rights. There is no international treaty or convention that specifically covers the human rights of older persons, but older women have been called out for special attention in various human rights instruments and declarations. Of course, older women are entitled to all of the rights enshrined in the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which are applicable to all stages of a woman’s life, and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has argued that full development and advancement of women, including the enjoyment of human rights by older women, can only be achieved through a “life-cycle approach that recognizes and addresses the different stages of women’s lives −from childhood through adolescence, adulthood and old age−“, since the cumulative impact of those stages is so readily apparent when assessing the lives and needs of older women from a human rights perspective. This work discusses ageism and gender and realization of the human rights of older women and covers a range of subjects including legal and policy frameworks; health; housing; work; education and lifelong learning; participation in political and decision-making processes; poverty, economic empowerment and property rights; participation in community activities; gender stereotyping and ageist myths; caregiving and families; abuse, violence and neglect; access to justice; emergencies; older women as members of various vulnerable sub-groups (e.g., rural older women, refugees and older lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex women); intergenerational solidarity; and the role of businesses and entrepreneurs in the realization of the human rights of older women.
Critical Feminist Gerontology: In the Back Room of Research
Journal of Women & Aging, 2012
The article takes a feminist approach to gerontology. It examines the stereotypes of ageism that derive from the relationship between culture and old age. It establishes the requirements for a type of research that reflects women's own experience of growing older, as well as the social construction of values related to women's old age. It focuses on the sociocultural features of this population, which faces old age with certain limitations, but also with unparalleled assets.