Unclaimed Treasures: Older Women's Reflections on Lifelong Singlehood

ABSTRACT

Ever-single, older women are a diverse group, whose experiences of singlehood have received little attention from researchers. In this qualitative study, eight women between the ages of 65 and 77 living in a mid-sized Southwestern Ontario city were interviewed about being ever single, including their perspectives of the benefits and drawbacks of this status at their current age. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews, and the constant comparative method was used for data analysis. Emergent themes illustrated how the women's stories of singlehood were affected by the sociopolitical contexts of their youth. Upon reflection, the women articulated the benefits of lifelong singlehood, strongly emphasizing their independence and “ability to be alone,” which was viewed as very important as they aged. The drawbacks of singlehood focused on loneliness and the absence of a social support network, which took on particular importance as the women experienced increasing age and frailty. Overall, the participants expressed satisfaction with their marital status and defied common stereotypes about older, single women. Implications of these findings relate to the social structure of marital status and its impact upon the lives of women who remain single.     

Positive Affect Between Adult Women and Their Mothers and Mothers-in-Law

This study investigated and compared the influence of selected factors on the affective aualities of mother-daughter and mother-in-lawldaughter-in-law relaAonships. The sample ionsisted of 229 nonorofessional and 250 orofessional women from two uni- - - - ~ . versity campuses; they were selected with a stratified, random sampling procedure. Filial responsibility attitudes, health of older dyad members, and social support influenced positive affect in both relationships. Contrary to expectations, geographic distance, adult women's age, race, nonprofessional/professional work status, and older dyad member's marital status were not predictors. Contact and health of the adult women were predictors of positive affect toward mothers but not mothers-in-law. This study underscores the importance of focusing on specific dyadic relationships when conducting intergenerational family research.     

Unanticipated Consequences: A Comparison of Expected and Actual Retirement Timing Among Older Women

ABSTRACT

The present study adds to the growing body of literature on women and retirement by means of a comparative analysis of the factors associated with anticipated retirement timing (among pre-retirees) and actual retirement timing (among retirees). Adopting a political economy of aging perspective, we argue that socially-structured patterns of gender inequality related to women's multiple roles across the life course affect patterns of retirement timing. Specifically, we hypothesize that the gendered nature of women's work-retirement decision-making is unanticipated during pre-retirement years. Logistic regression analyses are performed on data drawn from a sample of 275 women aged 45 and older living in the Vancouver area of British Columbia. A central finding is that while actual timing of retirement is affected by family caregiving responsibilities and by health/stress factors, pre-retirees do not perceive these to be important in their own expected retirement timing. Implications for social policy, education, and women's financial and psychological well-being in old age are elaborated.     

Unclaimed treasures:older women's reflections on lifelong singlehood

Ever-single, older women are a diverse group, whose experiences of singlehood have received little attention from researchers. In this qualitative study, eight women between the ages of 65 and 77 living in a mid-sized Southwestern Ontario city were interviewed about being ever single, including their perspectives of the benefits and drawbacks of this status at their current age. Data were collected in semi-structured interviews, and the constant comparative method was used for data analysis. Emergent themes illustrated how the women's stories of singlehood were affected by the sociopolitical contexts of their youth. Upon reflection, the women articulated the benefits of lifelong singlehood, strongly emphasizing their independence and "ability to be alone," which was viewed as very important as they aged. The drawbacks of singlehood focused on loneliness and the absence of a social support network, which took on particular importance as the women experienced increasing age and frailty. Overall, the participants expressed satisfaction with their marital status and defied common stereotypes about older, single women. Implications of these findings relate to the social structure of marital status and its impact upon the lives of women who remain single.     

Care Arrangement Choices for Older Widows: Decision Participants' Perspectives

SUMMARY

This research examines how a wide range of care arrangement decisions for frail older women are made. Interviews were conducted with 11 older women (ten of whom are widows), nine of their family members, and six professional service providers. Maintaining the older woman's independence was identified as a major theme. While all decision participants identified it as an explicit or implicit decision-making goal, their meanings of independence were different. The older women's meanings were flexible, changing in response to changes in their physical condition and need for assistance. Adult children tended to identify their mothers as independent when they did not actually need assistance, or when they received help from other sources (e.g., home health care). Professional service providers were inclined to define independence narrowly, as avoiding nursing home placement. Minor themes associated with independence include responsibility, reciprocity, and the family's importance in maintaining independence. These themes help to clarify the complex dynamics that take place during care arrangement decisions and explain how care arrangement choices are made.     

Workplace Well-being, Gender and Age: Examining the ‘Double Jeopardy’ Effect

This study examines the effects of age and gender on work-related subjective well-being, looking at job-related affective well-being and job satisfaction. Specifically, it investigates whether older women, who may be doubly disadvantaged in being old and being women, are victims of a “double jeopardy” effect. Self-reported survey-data were obtained from 446 adults employed full-time. The results of this study suggest that age seems to matter more than gender in the workplace, and that aging is associated with lower job-related well-being and higher job satisfaction. Although older women reported slightly lower job-related affective well-being than men, the decrease of subjective well-being with age impacts on both genders.     

Exploring First Sexual Intercourse,Sexual Orientation,and Sexual Health in Men

In this study the characteristics of the sexual debut of men who have sex with men (MSM) and men who have sex with women (MSW) age 35 or younger (N = 1,201) were compared with one another. We investigated whether these characteristics were associated with sexual health and behavior, and to what extent. Compared to MSW, MSM tended to be older when they had their first sexual intercourse; their first sex partner was older, they felt less ready, and they experienced more pain. We also found that they reported a higher number of lifetime sexual partners and less condom use compared to MSW. Similarities were also ascertained, such as the fact that individuals from both groups do not differ significantly regarding how they experienced their first sexual intercourse emotionally. Many differences between these groups should not always be seen as problematic, whereas others still indicate a need for targeted interventions.     

“Difficult,Messy, Nasty,and Sensational”

Feminist publishing played an important role in the feminist art movement of the 1970s and into the 1980s, and Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics was a key journal in this landscape. This paper argues that Heresies is important not only because it was a forum for some of the most influential feminist art women of the period, but because it experimented with an editorial structure that required participants to reckon with the discomforts of difference. Editors of the periodical took seriously the feminist critique of hierarchically structured organizational cultures and both promoted and practiced collective publishing. Moreover, through an emphasis on editorial statements, I consider how Heresies gives expression to the affective entanglements of the women involved in Heresies' specific form of collaboration and collective feminist politics. An examination of the editorials as sites of affective intensity helps to come to an understanding not of what women were thinking, writing, and making, but how they may have felt about their work and their relationships with women with whom they worked.     

The Importance of Fairness and Equity for the Marital Satisfaction of Older Women

ABSTRACT

In all societies, people are concerned with social justice. “It's just not right” is a fairly common lament. In these two studies, we interviewed 240 older women, who ranged in age from 50 to 82. We found that most older women (85%) considered their marriages to be fair and equitable. Older women were less concerned about existing inequities than their younger peers. Nonetheless, they were somewhat concerned with how rewarding and how fair and equitable their relationships were perceived to be. Those who felt over-benefited, for example, felt more guilty than did their less advantaged peers; those who felt under-benefited felt far more angry than did their privileged peers. Stressful life events—such as the arrival of children, retirement, serious illness, or the awareness impending death—often brought to awareness long simmering resentments over issues of fairness.     

Explaining age differences in women’s emotional well-being: The role of subjective experiences of aging

ABSTRACT

Our study examines explanations for the “paradox” of older women’s better emotional well-being compared with younger women. We consider the role of subjective experiences of aging in a society that devalues older women. Using a sample of women (n = 872) from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (1995–1996 and 2004–2006), we examine the role of five components of the subjective experience of aging in explaining older women’s better emotional well-being compared with younger women: age identity, conceptions of the timing of middle age, aging attitudes, aging anxieties, and self-assessed physiological changes. We find that, compared with women 50–54 years old, those 35–39 years old report lower positive affect, and those 25–49 report higher negative affect. These patterns are partially explained by younger women’s greater anxiety about declines in health and attractiveness and older women’s more youthful identities. Our study underscores the value of considering the implications of our ageist and sexist society for women’s emotional well-being across adulthood.     

Older Women of Color: A Feminist Exploration of the Intersections of Personal,Familial and Community Life

SUMMARY

This paper examines the lives of older U.S. women of color who represent racial and ethnic heritages that have a history of unequal access to sources of economic and political power in this country. These women exemplify women with vastly different cultural traditions, but are similar in that they face discrimination as women of color. The combined impact of age, gender, and racial and ethnic background is neglected within our discussions of older women. This paper contributes to our understanding of older women of color by examining the personal, familial, and community aspects of the lives of older women of color. This exploration challenges feminist gerontologists to bring the discussion of this intersection to the center as we explore and seek to comprehend the reality of older women's lives. This scrutiny creates a space for the discussion of both the threats faced by women of color in their unique juncture as old, female, and of color as well as an illumination of the strengths manifested by these women. Further the need to embrace a feminist gerontological framework when practitioners work with these populations is addressed.     

Older Women and Beliefs About Exercise Risk:

Preliminary research suggests that some active older women perceive that the personal benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks. This study aimed to identify sociodemographic and lifestyle explanations for variations In older women's risk perceptions for six fitness activities. A convenience sample of 43 women aged 52 to 73 responded to a survey questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis controlling for age, hearth, and education indicated that those women who were-mothers held lower levels of perceived risk for late life exercise than women who had never experienced the motherhood role. The motherhood variable, along with current activity level, accounted for some 40% of the variance In risk perceptions, an unexpected finding which will require future confirmation. Several possible explanations for this result are presented.     

Nurse's Aides in Nursing Homes:

Nurse's aides, primarily women, provide the majority of care to residents, primarily older women, in nursing homes. This pilot study deals with an understudied area: characteristics and perceptions of nurse's aides. The data in this exploratory study are drawn from extensive semi-structured interviews with 27 randomly selected nurse's aides in three skilled care nursing homes in central Arkansas. The study provides a glimpse into facets of life, work, and caregiving from the aide's perspective. The data address what is most and least satisfying about the aides' work and how they rate themselves as caregivers. Clearly the aides' attitudes, expectations, and behaviors are connected to the well-being of the residents they serve.     

Proud to be a woman: Womanhood,old age,and emotions

ABSTRACT

This article takes its starting point in the discussions regarding intersecting discourses of gender and age and the lived experience of older women. The main objective is to discuss the experience of womanhood among older women and to demonstrate their active role in creating spaces for themselves and their friends and affecting each other. The study is based on narrative interviews with female members of the University of the Third Age (U3A). The main findings describe older women who actively engage with discourses of gender to embark on positive constructions of womanhood. They create their own spaces for women’s activism that are filled with positive emotions mobilized to support each other. This article discusses such findings and their relevance to the study of old age and gender. As a result, it serves as an invitation to think and feel differently about older women and their experience of womanhood.     

Aging in precarious times: Exploring the role of gender in shaping views on aging

ABSTRACT

The present study explores views on aging and how these differ according to gender and precariousness status. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 men and 10 women with secure and insecure pensions. Themes like fear of illness and health decline were more present in men, while fear of losing their attractiveness in old age more present among women. For all participants, loss of autonomy and social roles represented a negative view of old age, while activity in the form of work, volunteering, or leisure represented positive views. Differences in views on aging were related to pension security and less to gender. Women with insecure pension plans displayed the most negative views of aging. Implications for practice and policy to prevent health and gender inequalities are discussed.     

Probability of marriage and fertility of women suffering from schizophrenia or affective disorders

Abstract Schizophrenia and affective disorders are the main forms of severe mental illness among women of childbearing age; earlier this century European and American studies showed that the fertility of these patients was reduced. Since the second world war the development of community-orientated psychiatry appears to have resulted in a lessening of differentials between patients and normal women. The present study was designed to estimate probability of marriage and fertility of such patients in London followingthese developments in psychiatry. Over 1,000women aged 16-50 were selected from 1955-63 admissions to a London hospital, and data were collected from medical records. Owing to the demographic heterogeneity of the sample, the analysis of maximum discriminative power was to compare each patient with a normal woman of corresponding age, observed during identical calendar periods, as derived from Registrar General's estimates. The fertility of each patient was compared with that of a normal woman, controlled for age at and duration of marriage, and an assessment was made of the effect of hospital stay on fertility. Before admission, probability of marriage of schizophrenics was just under three-quarters of that of normal women, and after admission this was greatly reduced to just over one-third of normal; women with affective disorders were very similar to normal women as regards probability of marriage, and also fertility. The fertility of schizophrenics was reduced both before and after admission, and much of the latter reduction depended on the effect of hospital stay; however, this fertility differential was too small to be clinically or socially important. The relevance of these results to the population genetics of schizophrenia is noted. Affective disorders are primarily disorders of mood, usually involving a depression, but in a smaller group of patients periods of excitement or elation involving marked overactivity of thought and behaviour. The patient may return to normal between these periods of illness, and although delusions and hallucinations sometimes occur they are usually less prominent than in schizophrenia. Affective disorders generally become evident later in life than schizophrenia, and they often require shorter periods of in-patient treatment, and the medical prognosis is often more hopeful. The expectation of affective psychoses (the most severe forms of the disorder) for a member of the general population varies between 0·3 and 1% from country to country. Milder conditions have also been included in this study, and the expectation of all these affective disorders is likely to be much higher.     

The Gendered Double Standard of Aging in US Marriage Markets

Using data on marriages collected in most US states between 1970 and 1988, we show that the older men are when they marry, the more years senior to their brides they are, whether it is a first or higher‐order marriage. While older men with more education marry down in age slightly more than less educated older men, the pattern of men marrying further down if they marry later holds strongly for all education groups. We consider several possible explanations for the tendency of men to marry further down in age if they are older at marriage. While we have no direct measure of physical attractiveness, we argue that the most compelling interpretation is that men, more than women, evaluate potential spouses on the basis of appearance. Because the prevailing standard of beauty favors young women, the older men are when they marry, the less they find women their own age attractive relative to younger women, leading them to marry further down in age if they are older at marriage. The consequence for women of men's preference for youth is more often that they remain unmarried than that they end up married to much older or less educated men.     

The Red Hat Society®: Exploring the Role of Play,Liminality, and Communitas in Older Women's Lives

ABSTRACT

There is an extensive literature on play. Yet, the role of play in older adults' lives has received limited attention. Strikingly absent is research on play and older women. Missing from the literature is how older women use play as a liminal context for social interaction and communitas. This is odd because by 2030 one in four American women will be over the age of sixty-five. The primary purpose of this study is to explore the roles of play, liminality, and communitas in older women's lives. The focus is the Red Hat Society®, a social group for women over age 50 that fosters play and fun. Using qualitative interviews with focus groups and participant observation of a regional Red Hat Society® event, the study highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of current conceptualizations of play, liminality, and communitas.     

Relationships Among Older Women Living in a Nursing Home

SUMMARY

Literature suggests that women's skills in establishing close ties with other women help sustain them in old age by giving them a sense of control over their lives. This paper questions how such a notion may apply to women in a nursing home setting and contrasts women's experiences with those of men. It is a reanalysis of data from a previously reported study of institutionalized elders' social networks, this time with a specific focus on women residents' relationships with one another. Here, I consider the role of negative interaction in personal relationships, the meaning of intimacy and reciprocity in the nursing home context, and issues of age and gender. The final section, implications for practice and future research, includes a discussion of the opportunities for and constraints on relationship formation.     

Subjective Realities of Rural Older Women's Lives: A Case Study

SUMMARY

This paper presents and analyzes the subjective reality of a single older rural woman through her telling of her life story and open-ended interviews. This case study is used to demonstrate how a rural woman experiences a positive life experience while living with poverty, poor health, and numerous challenges and losses. The case was selected from the multiphase Rural Older Women's Project completed in rural Minnesota in 1986 and 1987. This representation shows the respondent living her later life and adjusting to old age in the same ways she has always faced life's challenges–with stoicism and tenacity, as well as patience and good humor. In the telling of her life story we recognize key values of rural older women including independence and privacy, balanced with a clear sense of the importance of relationships with others, and a closeness to the land. The views of informal and formal systems of service delivery arc discussed and implications explored for the development of formal services which will more effectively meet the needs of rural older women.