The process of aging involves the change of various social statuses of a person. Unfortunately, a lot of these transformations are not the most pleasant ones, as they are connected with different prejudices against elder people and exclude them from the mainstream of a social life. The women’s role in aging is particular due to the fact that they are bearing with both physiological aspects of aging as menopause with overall health changing and also social problems of gender inequality. The last aspect accumulates its forces throughout the life cycle and afterward causes even bigger problems.
According to Vinton, older women are usually facing ageism and sexism in various social, economical, legal and political institutions . Moreover, age is connected with different stereotypes about people’s unattractiveness, dependence and incompetence , which places them in a marginal and in some point unwanted groups of society. Being in a shade of social interest, problems of women in older age are ignored, as they are regarded as non important . For example, Vinton explains that domestic violence in older families is classified rather than elder abuse than a problem, related to a gender . In my opinion, taking into consideration that domestic violence from elder husbands is also present as the issue in families, we should consider it as a woman issue, as suggested by the feminist approach . The needs of elder woman are different from those of other generations; however, they cannot be ignored and should be respected. In this work we will try to look at various aspects that are indicating that aging is a woman issue and what can be done in order to diminish its negative effect on elder women’s lives.
The retirement plays another part in this crisis because from the very beginning, exactly patriarchal forces together with family obligations are mostly forcing women to retire . In addition to this, afterwards, women also have difficulties with their retirement and pensions as they are not fully covering their expenses . According to Orel, this happens because a lot of women do not know about the risks of financial insecurity while retiring from their jobs. Richardson says that the poverty of elder women is cause by stable gender inequality throughout the lifetime, systematic problems with retirement policies and high level of women involvement in the caregiving .
Another important example of marginalizing women from the society, due to their age and gender, is a question of the caregiving. It has a strong relation with the previously described issues, and, in my opinion, this topic is largely underestimated and should be highlighted as one to learn about. According to Hooyman, caregiving remains the predominantly a woman work, which is usually underpaid or unpaid at all . Orel describes the caregiving as an unexpected career path as it often is associated with life circumstances that do not have control, such as the sickness of a relative, the economical crisis, etc. . What is more important is that statistically, the recipients of this care are women as well and this creates a certain vicious circle where women are locked up because of the lack of choice and sources to lead another life. According to the feminist approach, such problems are caused by historical oppression of women with home duties and limit access to the labor market . These inequalities may seem not significant at some point, however, their accumulation results in a social and economic exclusion of women from the society. Women throughout their lives are earning less than man and all in all it leads to their poverty, especially, in older age . The overall trend that women participate in caregiving more than a man should be modified both from the cultural perspective and various social institutions. I personally agree that one of the first and most important cultural changes is to give the woman a right not to provide caregiving at all . Moreover, some educational programs could encourage the whole family to participate in further caregiving, while the access to the equal salary may give the women a right to choose their career paths .
If we speak about physiological changes during the aging of women, here, the menopause is one of the most significant one. It is usually not very discussed and is considered more as a private matter, but, according to the research of personal women experiences of menopause by Walter, it is an important marker that forces to reconsider basically the whole life . The menopause has a strong influence on women’s self-perception, her sex practices and relations with spouses, family and friends. Unfortunately, the research has remarked that women do not always share their menopause experience with others while their husbands, for example, are not that interested in discussing this matter at all . All in all it once again leaves the woman face-to-face with her age issue, proving that aging is her personal, woman problem.
In conclusion, all problems, described in this paper are actual questions that need an urgent solution to order to comfort not only recent generation of old women but the further ones as well. As we can observe, social issues as becoming a widow, the retirement and the caregiving are strongly related to each other and capture women in a trap, where they need to struggle on their own. These problems are not the only ones because together with psychological and physiological changes in women’s organism during aging they create very unfavorable conditions for the life. The aging can be really called a woman issue due to the fact that they are resisting more pressings and managing them independently. Moreover, nowadays there problems are simply ignored or underestimated by the society, which complicates the women’s aging even more.
The positive side of all these issues is that they all are manageable with the help of specific social activities. There are various decisions that could be implemented. However, I personally believe that the speaking out and the education process about these issues are the first steps towards the better understanding between the older generations and a modern one. We are all about to become old, sooner or later, and this is why we should be patient and conscious about these problems already now.
Works Cited
Hooyman, Nancy R. & Judith G.Gonyea. "A Feminist Model of Family Care: Practice and Policy Directions." Journal of Women and Aging (2008): 149-169.
Li, Chris. "Widowhood: Consequences on Invome for Senior Women ." (2004): 1-12.
Orel, Nancy., Landry-Meyer, Laura., Spence, Maria A.S. "Women's Caregiving Careers and Retirement Financial Insecurity." Adultspan Journal (2007): 49-62.
Richardson, Virginia E. "Woman and Retirement." Journal of Women & Aging (2008): 49-66.
Vinton, Linda. "Working with Abused Older Women from a." Journal of Woman & Aging (2008): 85-100.
Walter, Carolyn Ambler. "The Psychosocial Meaning of Manopause: Women's Experiences ." Journal of Women & Aging (2008): 117-131.
