Older Women in Bulgaria Adapting in a Changing Society

ABSTRACT

The attitudes of older Bulgarian women toward the political and economic changes in their country after the overthrow of the Communist government in 1989 are explored based largely on interviews by two well-known Bulgarian gerontologists. The thinking and voting of these aged in the December 1994 elections that returned the Communists to power as the Socialist Party is analyzed based upon the social change theory of Matilda W. Riley and the adaptation theory of Robert White. Despite their verbalized acceptance of the democratic and economic changes, elderly Bulgarian women in large numbers were influenced nevertheless by their personal economic plight to vote for the Socialist Party.