Susan B. Somers, JDPatricia Brownell, PhD, MSW

Annual NICE Knowledge Exchange 2014Rethink Aging Now!

Toronto, Ontario, CanadaTuesday, May 21, 2014

The mission of the NGO CoA Sub-Committee on Older Women is to raise issues related to older women from an international perspective with the United Nations, world governments and civil society, and to give voice to older women. Empowerment and promotion of human rights are key concerns.

According to Duncan Green (2013), empowerment within (defined as a sense of rights, dignity and voice) is a necessary precondition for collective action aimed at social change. This includes agency to identify the need for change, vision to imagine a changed world, and power to effect change.

Older people (and older women) are rights holders.

Population shiftsOlder Women count!Older Women are Rights Bearers

Governments are Duty Bearers

We older women are a large and growing population group. Older women form the majority of older persons: for every 100 women over 60 years of age, there are 84 men; for every 100 women age 80 years and older, there are 61 men.

In 2012, there were 810 million older persons age 60 years and above; in 2050, there will be a projected 2 billion aged 60 and above. Older women make up the largest proportion of older persons, and the number and proportion of older persons are growing faster than any other age group.

Many older women are independent, healthy, vibrant, and productive members of society. We are educators, mentors, providers, caregivers, and volunteers, mothers and grandmothers, and neighbors and friends. Some of us take on leadership roles.

However, older women face cumulative effects of gender discrimination throughout their lives and women over the age of 60 in the workforce are often invisible. Poverty among older women, particularly those in minority status groups and the never married, is substantially above that of older men and of other age cohorts.

Government policies and programs often neglect older women’s contributions to their families, communities and society and to the overall economy.

As a group, older women are rarely acknowledged as being contributors to the national economy. We are too often simply not counted.

Around the world, older women are in situations where our rights are not protected, and we may have no social protection or access to health care, or have a decision making role in policy making.

When policies related to finance, energy, natural resources, climate change, urbanization, conflict situations, natural disasters, health, food security, and employment are under discussion, it is important to acknowledge that these are all resources that older women need access to as well as women and men of traditional working age.

It is as if women who are not employed or no longer employed in the formal work sector do not exist.

Men and women experience old age differently: older men and women both experience age discrimination but older women also face cumulative effects of gender discrimination throughout their lives.

This includes less access to health services and education, lower earning capacity and limited access to rights in land-ownership, contributing to increased vulnerability in old age.

Older women are more likely to be caregivers; older women are more likely to suffer from neglect, abuse and violence; and older women are more likely to be widowed, which in many countries can lead to poverty and social exclusion.

Older women are the majority of older people over the age of 60.

Older women may be vulnerable and become victims, suffering from ageism, cumulative gender discrimination, neglect, abuse and violence.

Older women are among the poorest and least educated of the world’s adult citizens.

Older women are different from older men and younger women with respect to health and morbidity patterns and therefore have different needs.

Older women are often providers of caregiving for all generations and financial assistance to the younger generations.

Older women are a valuable and productive economic resource to their families, communities and societies.

In domestic violence studies, older women are largely invisible:

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/gender/docs/Guidelines_Statistics_VAW.pdf UN DESA Guidelines for Producing Statistics on Violence Against

Women Target Population 47. “Some countries have opted to set an upper age limit for

respondents, the reasons being that older people are more prone to memory recall problems and tend to  have a general reluctance to discuss sensitive topics. It is also likely that an older age category will be too small to allow for separate analysis. “

Presenter at UN Women program on findings of a domestic violence survey in the European Union: “We couldn’t include many older women iin our survey as we didn’t have the funds to go into institutions or survey people with disabilities”.

   

Silvia Perel-Levin, Chair, NGO Committee on Ageing in Geneva UN Site observed On January 18, 2014:

“The new Executive Director of UN Women met for an hour with the NGO Committee on the Status of Women. We asked her about her plans to include ageing in her programs. She replied that she admits that they do nothing on ageing and that with their limited funds, she does not see that happening in the near future.”

I just love old people.

Old people are so cute!

I (we) would never abuse older people because I (we) protect my (our) mothers/sisters/wives.

We take care of our older people.

Not only younger women experience abuse and violence. Older women also suffer from neglect, abuse and violence.

A new report issued by the UN DESA on Neglect, Abuse and Violence Against Older Women, based on the work of an Expert Group Meeting, finds that older women experience abuse that is underreported and poorly documented by governments; academic studies have found prevalence rates as high as 38% in national prevalence studies, representing significant violations of older women’s human rights.

A pilot study on elder abuse in Malaysia found similar prevalence rates of abuse that were found in a national study on elder abuse conducted in the USA (Claire Choo Wan Yuan, 2014; Ronald Acierna, 2010).

Both studies found that included 1 in 10 older adults experienced one or more forms of abuse in the past year of the study when financial exploitation and expanded measures of psychological abuse, and expanded categories of abusers were included.

Older women face greater risk of physical and psychological abuse due to discriminatory social attitudes and non-realization of the human rights of women.

Women’s poverty is directly related to the absence of economic opportunities and autonomy, lack of access to economic resources, land ownership and inheritance, and minimal participation in the decision-making process.

When we think about domestic violence we think often think about women of reproductive age;

When we think about abuse of older parents we often think about mothers who are homebound and dependent;

When we think about elder abuse, we often think about the elderly in nursing homes.

Domestic Violence:

They are all the same age They are all victims of family abuse They are all victims of physical abuse They are all women What is different?Their health status differsThey appear to have differing cognitive

statusThey represent different stereotypes of

older women and abuse

Laws and services based on prevailing stereotype of elder abuse, for example, adult protective services.

Older adult protective programs that assume cognitive incapacity not appropriate for IPV with older woman victim.

DV services assuming IPV not appropriate for older women victims of adult child abuse.

Older women are particularly affected by misleading and negative stereotypes.

Instead of being portrayed in ways that reflect their contributions, strengths, resourcefulness and humanity, they are often depicted as weak and dependent

This reinforces exclusionary practices at national and local levels.

Promoting a positive image of older women’s contributions increase their self-esteem (MIPAA, 2003).

Images of Ageing: a positive view of aging is an integral part of the Madrid Plan.

However, positive values of aging are often neglected in some societies and older people are dis-proportionately portrayed as a drain on society, with their escalating need for health and support services, and their claim on social protection schemes and pensions.

Age, gender, social class and access to social networks are among most salient determinants of power shaping workplace interactions and experiences (Blackstone, 2004).

Gender-based power differential main predictor of sexual harassment

Sexual harassment researchers are starting to include age as an additional dimension of power shaping workplace experiences.

Bossy?

Confused?

Younger workers must help older ones

Can’t keep up?

What is content of older women workers’ harassment experiences?

Which older workers are most likely to become targets of workplace harassment?

How do older women workers respond to potentially harassing behaviors?

What do older women workers have to say about their workplace experiences?

Work contributions ignored Being left out of workplace decisions that

affect their work Talked down to by co-workers Talked down to by bossesThese experiences indicated to older women

workers that they were being devalued in the workplace (Blackstone, 2013).

Age a more salient factor than gender when an older person perceives they are being bullied or harassed in the workplace.

Older women with close family relationships are less likely to perceive bullying than those lacking close family ties.

Older women with close friends are more likely to perceive harassment than those without close friends (Blackstone, 2013).

Told a family member or close friend Told no one Rarely told a government agency or

attorney

Suggests bullying and harassment of older women in the workplace is under reported.

Reasons for continuing to work:financial need; maintaining social connections; remaining physically, emotionally and mentally functional.

Age and gender are related to workplace harassment and bullying

Ageism is behind harassment:

“Because I was older, the young girls thought I shouldn’t be working, I should be at home waiting to die.”

“After about age 60-65, I began to notice that people would sometimes ignore me as though I had become invisible.”

“ One is also patronized or talked down to in many situations,”

“I am not able to find work at the level I had before this age.”

Workplace discrimination against older workers is often based on systemic negative stereotyping.

Employers can believe that older workers are less adaptable, less interested in technology, less physically strong, less ambitious, less energetic, less healthy, less alert, less flexible and have less functionally memory.

Negative age bias of employers had been linked to reduced opportunities for hiring, training, promotion and retention of older workers.

It has also been linked to stress-related mental and physical ailments of older workers (Jackson, 2013).

Invigoration or over-compensation Internal Attributions Identity bifurcation Assimilation(I am not typical older woman)Discouraged to the Stereotype:Disengagement; anger; withdrawal; poor

health outcomes

Challenge negative group stereotypes Identify positive distinctiveness Collective action Redefine criteria for success Use positive internal coping strategies Seek sources of social support Take action to confront discriminatory act Engage in advocacy and legal action Remember: Discrimination is a human

rights issue!!

Brownell & Kelly (Eds) (2013). Ageism and mistreatment of older workers. London: Springer Publishing

United Nations (2003). Political declaration and Madrid international plan of action on ageing. DPI: New York.

UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2013). Neglect, abuse and violence against older women. Discussion paper for the Expert Working Group (EWG). www.un.org.

sbsomers5@aol.combrownell@fordham.edu