Centre for Policy on Ageing



The vulnerable life course — poverty and social assistance among middle-aged and older women
Author(s)	Evy Gunnarsson
Journal title	Ageing and Society, vol 22, part 6, November 2002
Pages	pp 709-728
Keywords	Older women ; Middle aged ; Income [older people] ; Poor elderly ; Social security benefits ; Social policy ; Sweden.
Annotation	In Europe, older women are more likely than older men to be living in poverty, and the contrast is directly related to their domestic roles and labour market position during earlier phases of their life courses. Despite Sweden's well-developed social security system, the generalisation applies to its older women. This paper examines the current incomes and life courses of 14 middle-aged and older Swedish women who have periodically had to rely on social assistance. Their formal employment histories have been the foundation of their vulnerable economic situation in older age, which the Swedish social security system does little to combat. Unless the bases and assumptions of the social security model are changed, there will continue to be many older women who live a life of poverty or near poverty. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-021209203 A
Classmark	BD: SE: JF: F:W6: JH: TM2: 76P
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.