Broken Down by Age and Gender

The last decade has seen the emergence of a feminist awareness of old age and, in particular, a growing awareness of what has come to be seen as “the problem of old women.” Old women, it has been consistently demonstrated, are disadvantaged in a variety of ways in relation to old men. They are poorer, older, and sicker; they have less adequate housing and less access to private transport; they are more likely to experience widowhood, severe disability, and institutionalization. Taking “the problem of old women” as its starting point, this article argues for a less phallocentric analysis of women in old age, which is less reliant on men as a relational category to define the conditions, experiences, and resources of older women.