Journal of Women & Aging最新文献

Contrasting predominant assumptions of women who live with age-related care needs as passive, unagentic, and helpless, this article explores agency exercised in everyday lives permeated by formal home care services. Using a narrative thematic analysis of interviews, diaries, and observations of three Swedish women in later life using home care services, this study examines their diverse ways of navigating and managing a care system that can be described as complex and fragmented. As users of domiciliary care, they lead, instruct, and educate staff; they prepare for and assist in carrying out service provision, coordinate service agents, and engage empathetically with staff to reduce stress levels. At times, they also protest, resist and criticise, or express contentment in spite of questionable service quality. The analysis conceptualises such manifestations of agency as a regime-dependent, situationally embedded striving to influence everyday life, encompassing not only overt, goal-directed actions but also seemingly passive or contradictory orientations such as withdrawal, acceptance, refusal, or even self-harming practices. The findings demonstrate how the participants - Betty, Ofelia, and Gunnel - each enact distinctive approaches: Betty pragmatically seeks to tailor services to her preferences, Ofelia critically challenges and attempts to influence the system, and Gunnel strives to maintain harmony through collaboration. Their extensive engagement contests assumptions that women in the so-called 'fourth age' have lost their agency. Instead, the study shows that, in becoming operatrices of the care system, they paradoxically uphold or even intensify their agency, which calls for recognising care users' influence over the services they rely on.

This study explores how Israeli women experience menopause in the context of climate change, with a specific focus on the intersection between internal hot flashes and external heat stress during the summer months. Using a qualitative methodology, 40 semi-structured interviews were conducted with women aged 42-60 who reported experiencing hot flashes as a symptom of menopause. The analysis reveals that coping with menopausal symptoms does not occur in isolation but is deeply embedded within environmental, material, and social contexts. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources theory while using an intersectional lens, the study highlights the significance of personal, interpersonal, material and social resources in managing the dual burden of internal and external heat. Based on these insights, the "Within-Without Coping Model" is proposed to conceptualize the layered and intersecting dimensions of coping. Although women in menopause should be recognized as a vulnerable population within climate and health policy, it is also important to acknowledge their agency and creativity in adjusting to the challenges. It is essential to develop gender- and climate-sensitive interventions that address the specific needs of women in midlife.

This study examines the ways in which older people in Spain manage their daily meals, considering gender differences and the impact of increasing precarization. The main objective is to shed light on whether these two issues are at the root of certain forms of food insecurity among people with fewer resources, particularly women. We show that tasks related to the provision, preparation, distribution, and consumption of food foster both interactions and gender asymmetries, and although these may change over time depending on life circumstances, they are adopted by people according to the norms and expectations regarding the sexual division of labor and the assignment of responsibilities. We conclude that in contexts of precarization, having been or being the person responsible for family food provision places women and men in an unequal position in terms of access to sufficient and healthy food.

A central mantra of aging centers on staying socially engaged - a prescription supported by numerous studies reporting how social engagement enhances well-being in later life. Research in this area has primarily focused on interaction with family and friends, paid work, and unpaid activities such as volunteering, while devoting less attention to involvement in organizations with explicitly political goals. Political engagement - particularly activism oriented toward social change - may not only shape communities but also transform how individuals experience and understand their own aging. This transformative potential may be especially significant for women, who are often devalued as they age beyond youth. To explore this possibility, we draw on nine semi-structured interviews with members of the Older Feminist Network (OFN), an organization established in 1982 in the United Kingdom in response to the mainstream feminist movement's limited attention to older women's issues. Consistent with prior studies of other women-centered organizations, we found evidence that involvement in OFN provided social interaction, as well as physical and cognitive activity, that can enrich well-being in later life. Our analyses, however, revealed that its impact extended beyond social connection: It fostered a sense of purpose through shared political commitments and reframed aging through feminist consciousness. By turning the focus from social to political engagement in later life, our study reveals how activism can provide women with an empowering perspective on aging.

This article explores the efficacy of costume within the context of new or neo-burlesque performance and examines what costume 'does' on stage for older performers. It brings together scholarship on burlesque performance and female ageing and introduces a third theoretical dimension, that of critical costume. The article investigates the role costume plays in burlesque performances and the extent to which it partners with the bodies of older performers both during the creative process and on stage. Adopting object-oriented storytelling as methodology, interviews with professional and semi-professional performers reveal how the aesthetic, technical and material qualities of burlesque costumes act as a vehicle for the performance of pleasure and provide a platform for flamboyant aging. By examining the materiality and performative potential of burlesque costumes, this article offers insights into the transformative power of costume in the context of creative ageing and wellbeing. Drawing on testimony from performers, burlesque costuming is conceptualised as an active collaborator which is capable of producing alternative narratives around the representation of ageing, female bodies.

Gendered ageism refers to discrimination and bias arising from the intersection of age and gender. It leads to the devaluation and mistreatment of older women and may disproportionately impact multiple aspects of their lives. In this study, we explore the effects of gendered ageism on older women's access to healthcare in three African countries. Eighteen women aged 54-85 years were interviewed for this study. Thematic analysis was conducted to explore older women's experiences with healthcare facilities and health staff. Three sub-themes were identified: 1) structural and systemic issues that cause delay or denial of healthcare, 2) lack of person-centered care and disrespectful attitudes of healthcare workers, and 3) perceived control over healthcare decision-making. These sub-themes explore barriers to healthcare at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of interactions with healthcare systems. Gendered ageism may compromise older women's right to health, life, dignity, autonomy, and independence. It may deny older women access to timely and quality healthcare, jeopardizing their lives and limiting their prospects for healthy ageing. Recognition of the wide prevalence of gendered ageism and its impacts are essential for the formulation of health policies aimed at protecting older women from bias and discrimination within healthcare systems.

As population aging intensifies and low birth rates persist, the growing burden of pension expenditures has formed an important background for China's implementation of a gradual delayed retirement policy. However, within the traditional gender division of labor in China, middle-aged and older women often bear dual maternal responsibilities-supporting adult children and caring for grandchildren. This study adopts in-depth interviews and participatory observation to engage 11 middle-aged and older women in Xianlin Sub-district, Qixia District, Nanjing. It analyzes their role conflicts under the dual pressures of work and family, and explores the influence of labor systems, gender norms, and welfare institutions. The study finds that although delayed retirement can increase their family income, maintain social networks, and improve their "empty nest" living situation, they still face challenges such as dual labor, time poverty under labor systems, exclusion from modern parenting discourses, and physical and mental exhaustion due to dual maternal roles, under the constraints of multiple social structures. These maternal practices reflect the struggles of middle-aged and older women within structural dilemmas arising from family gender role expectations, the lack of social policies and protections, internalized traditional cultural notions, and insufficient social support. Therefore, it is urgently needed to optimize social policies, promote the construction of harmonious family values, implement community-based childcare mutual assistance, and adjust family roles as care strategies to help middle-aged and older women reposition their roles within multiple social structures and reshape maternal spaces.

Little qualitative literature has focused on women's motivations to undergo cosmetic/aesthetic surgery and their lived experiences throughout the surgery process (e.g., before, during, and after). To fill this gap, we interviewed 15 Czech women aged 30-55 and conducted non-participatory observations at aesthetic surgery clinics. We conducted a thematic analysis from which we generated three overarching themes. Broadly, participants discussed the normalisation of cosmetic/aesthetic surgery in society and the importance of undergoing cosmetic/aesthetic surgery for themselves while "in the shadow" for others. Participants also articulated how medical aesthetic encounters with aesthetic surgeon(s) influence their cosmetic/aesthetic surgery journeys. Finally, some women expressed decision regrets immediately after surgery or later during the recovery process. The presented results are the testimony of women who respond and negotiate differently to the pressures of gendered sociocultural norms and expectations associated with the body and its physicality. These findings seek to contribute to contemporary debates on gendered bodywork and self-care as a broader component of well-being and health from both theoretical and empirical perspectives and to focus on the ageing female body moving through the era of gender and cosmetic/aesthetic surgery.

This study explores the communication patterns between women in various stages of menopause and their healthcare providers through the lens of the theory of communicative disenfranchisement (TCD). Drawing from in-depth interviews (n = 32), using a thematic analysis and adopting an interpretive approach, three themes were identified relating to healthcare provider communication. Findings suggest that provider and patient communication involves (1) validating talk, (2) disenfranchising communication and disconfirming talk, and (3) patient self-advocacy. Although power imbalances are endemic to patient-provider relationships, our analysis demonstrates how these dynamics are exacerbated and acutely felt in the context of menopause from the perspective of the patient, due to the convergence of medical uncertainty, societal stigma, and the subjective nature of symptoms. Participants' narratives advocate for reforms that prioritize validation, comprehensive information, and access to more specialized and responsive care. The study argues that the TCD provides a critical framework for understanding how systemic healthcare disparities become communicatively enacted in specific, stigmatized health contexts like menopause. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Endogamy requirement, together with differences in life styles between nonreligious Han group and Hui-Muslims, cause Han-Hui intermarriage unwelcomed both in Han and Hui families in China. Changes brought by marriage make these Han women feel an identity crisis of being bi-marginalized by both Han and Hui families. Narratives of 32 Han-married-Hui women are analyzed with the help of autobiographical reasoning, examining how they relate the past to the present in their life stories to bridge personal change and render personal identity continuous. It is found that they rely on something stable, like personal character, personal capability, or certain resources (kids, husbands, domestic service), to diminish the change brought by the marriage and obtain self-continuity. During this process, four new, hybrid identities are developed: Hui-Muslim identity, Han-Muslim identity, Han-Half-Muslim identity, and Han-Non-Muslim identity. Self-identification approves the application of the mechanisms, while applying the mechanisms confirms the new identities. The dynamic interplay between the two help the women resist societal and family marginalization, and maintain 'coherent self' as well as align with Chinese family culture.