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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Surviving without children
— childless aged women in Esan, Nigeria | | Author(s) | Eboiyehi Friday Asiazobor |
| Journal title | BOLD, vol 19, no 4, August 2009 |
| Publisher | International Institute on Ageing (United Nations - Malta), August 2009 |
| Pages | pp 13-30 |
| Source | http://www.inia.org.mt |
| Keywords | Childless ; Older women ; Family care ; Needs [elderly] ; Case studies ; Nigeria. |
| Annotation | Most social research in ageing in sub-Saharan Africa has focused on care and support given by adult children and extended family members to their aged relatives - suggesting that it is the responsibility of the family, irrespective of whether they have children or not. While this arrangement is diminishing, there is no formal established welfare programme in place to fill this gap. This paper draws on data from life histories obtained purposively from selected childless aged women in two local government areas (LGAs) of Nigeria, Esan Central and Southeast, to examine contemporary care and support systems for the childless older woman and what alternatives are open them in the absence of children. The results indicate that childlessness has a negative impact on older women's well-being in later life.The diminishing extended family ties and increasing social distance between the childless older women and their extended family members also affect their care and support in old age. This trend was associated with the emerging nuclear family structure, social changes towards westernisation and coping strategies associated with decline in their real income as a result of the downturn of the Nigerian economy. Results showed that childless older women adopted various coping strategies ranging from subsistence farming, selling of some personal belongings for subsistence, begging for alms, petty trading, and employing the services of housemaids. Only a few older people depended on pension or some support from their churches and extended family members. The three recorded formal services that were provided by the two LGAs included relief scheme, roof repairs and provision of eyeglasses. In discussing these and related subjects, this paper suggests that there is a need for a cultural reawakening of extended family social security system towards the well-being of this population subgroup. This may be carried out within the framework of creative multi-track social policy interventions that will involve government, civil society and private sector partnership. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-091214209 A |
| Classmark | SU: BD: P6:SJ: IK: 69P: 7MT |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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