Connecting Gender and Aging

* How do the social effects of ageing over the life course interact with gender, giving rise to changed gender roles and relationships?* How do women's and men's sense of their identity change with increasing age?Connecting Gender and Ageing challenges the assumption that gender can be treated as static over the life course, highlighting the differential social effects of ageing on women's and men's roles, relationships and identity. The early chapters address the question of linking gender and age within sociological theory, outlining alternatives and introducing new ideas to integrate these two dimensions of social stratification.Contributors use a feminist perspective to explore the impact of ageing on gender roles in the workplace and in retirement; in marital and other relationships; in community support networks and in older women's own perceptions. A range of research approaches are used, including qualitative studies giving a voice to women. A concluding chapter draws out the implications of the book. A clear writing style and the inclusion of chapters from North America and Europe makes this book accessible to an international readership.

The Editors

Sara Arber is Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey. She is well-known nationally and internationally for her work on gender and ageing. Her recent books include: S Arber and J Ginn (1991) Gender and Later Life, Sage; S Arber and G N Gilbert (eds) (1991) Women and Working Lives, Macmillan and S Arber and M Evandrou (eds) (1993) Ageing, Independence and the Life Course, Jessica Kingsley.

Dr. Jay Ginn was a Research Fellow in Surrey University's Sociology Department and is currently researching at the National Institute for Social Work. She has numerous publications on gender and ageing arising from research on gender inequality in older people's income and mid-life women's employment. She co-authored Gender and Later Life (Sage, 1991).

'Only connect'
gender relations and ageing
Ageing, gender and sociological theory
Theorizing age and gender relations
Conformity and resistance as women age
Gendered work, gendered retirement
Choice and constraint in the retirment of older married women
The married lives of older people
'I'm the eyes and she's the arms'
changes in gender roles in advanced old age
Mutual care but differential esteem
caring between older couples
Gender roles, employment and informal care
Gender and elder abuse
Gender and social support networks in later life
Connecting gender and ageing
a new beginning?
References
Index