Gender, Social Inequalities, and Aging

By (author) Toni M. Calasanti, Kathleen F. Slevin

Paperback - £41.00

Publication date:

28 August 2001

Length of book:

248 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

ISBN-13: 9780759101869

The experience of men and women in later life varies enormously, not only along lines of gender but also due to ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and race. In this text on gender issues among the aging, Calasanti and Slevin explore these differences, their genesis, their meaning to men and women, and their treatment in the policy arena. The authors also take to task traditional research on aging and how it ignores these issues. The authors cover topics of work and retirement, body image, sexuality, health, family relationships, and informal care, among many others. The current research and nuanced theoretical approach presented in this brief book makes it the ideal text to correct the stereotypic and monolithic views of the elderly for courses in gender or aging.
Finally, a book with gender and age relations at its center; a persuasive response to existing aging texts that, by homogenizing old people, reduce old women, people of color, lesbians and gay men, and members of the poor and working classes to the status of 'other.' Focusing beyond individuals and their interpersonal ties, Calasanti and Slevin reveal the limits and biases of existing research and challenge what is known about old people and their sexuality, their work, their care, and their families, thus reclaiming and redefining what it means to be old.