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The Elderly Woman as agent of change
The female factor AARP presented interesting testimonies of several women from all over the world who talked about the role the elderly women have as agents of change and development, specially in less developed communities. In Lithuania a young democracy with a great number of widows because of the difference of the life expectancy in relation to men, women show a greater adaptation to the difficulties of the new market economy, and at the same time they act as a guarantor of tradition, or even they join together as volunteers to work in several areas. In Japan, for example, they face a problem: 17% of the elderly people (according to a 2000 survey) are immersed in a social change structure, since traditionally the elderly were cared in the family, mainly by women, and now this is about to change, as they fight to avoid dependency. In Kenya, the specific problems of the elderly are more serious because it is added to the issue of poverty of the African countries. In most of them women work until they die, even where ill, since they do not have a pension. To this we can add the role of the caregivers of their orphaned grandchildren - or with ill parents - because of the HIV/AIDS. This situation makes older women the main structure of their families.
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging
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