Women2000: Gender Dimensions of Ageing

What inequalities do older women face as a result of their gender-based roles in society? What measures can be taken to strengthen their positive contribution to the family and community?

The impact of gender inequalities in education and employment opportunities increases through every stage of the lifecycle, hitting hardest in old age. As a result, older women are more likely than older men to be poor. Men and women also suffer different health problems as they age, and women's lack of access to adequate care is sharpened by their higher levels of poverty. Moreover, their contributions as caregivers?for example, to grandchildren orphaned by HIV/AIDS?are often overlooked and underpaid, if paid at all. This paper addresses policy implications for women in an ageing world, and explores changing family structures, widowhood, care giving, social protection and health, women's work, and retirement, among other issues. The paper highlights the need for:
?Social protection systems to respond effectively to older women's needs, especially by eliminating discrimination in pension schemes
?Legislation to tackle abuse of and violence against women
?Lifelong learning to help older women remain in the mainstream of society
?Services to support caregivers, such as self-help groups, specialised counselling and training, and respite care.

How good is this research?
Assessing the quality of research can be a tricky business. This blog from our editor offers some tools and tips.
Read now

Related content

Document
Young people’s gender role attitudes over the transition to adulthood in Egypt
M. Gadallah, R. Roushdy, M. Sieverding / Economic Research Forum, Egypt, 2017
Change in gender role attitudes is a neglected dimension of research on the transition to adulthood in the Middle East and North Africa that has broad implications for young people’s outcomes, as well as attitudinal change in the region over time.
Document
The effect of mothers’ employment on youth gender role attitudes: evidence from Egypt
M. Sieverding, R. Roushdy, M. Gadallah / Economic Research Forum, Egypt, 2017
Cross-nationally, having a working mother during childhood is associated with more egalitarian attitudes among both adult men and women. However, no previous studies have explored this relationship in the Middle East and North Africa, where women’s employment rates have remained persistently low.
Document
Explaining low employment rates among older women in urban China
W. Jin / Institute for Fiscal Studies, London, 2017
In China, the employment rate among middle-aged and older urban residents is exceptionally low. For example, 27% of 55-64-year-old urban women were in work in 2013, compared to more than 50% in UK, Thailand and Philippines.
Document
Transitions in late-life living arrangements and socio-economic conditions of the elderly in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia
A. Angeli, M. Novelli / Economic Research Forum, Egypt, 2017
Middle East and North Africa’s demographic trends reveal together a growing ageing population and an exceptional growth of the youth population. Increasing elderly population leads to significant consequences for the cost and organisation of health systems.
Document
Gendered practices of remittances in Bangladesh: a poststructuralist perspective
S.R. Rashid / Migrating out of Poverty, 2016
Bangladesh belongs to the top-ten remittance-receiving countries of the world with a yearly earning of US$15 billion. Comprising around ninety percent of the Bangladeshi overseas labour flow, men leave behind their spouses and children due to the high cost of migration and laws within the destination country.

Eldis

Women2000: Gender Dimensions of Ageing