| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
Going solo
— findings from a survey of women aging without a partner and who do not have children | | Author(s) | Trish Hafford-Letchfield, Nicky Lambert, Ellouise Long, Dominique Brady |
| Journal title | Journal of Women and Aging, vol 29, no 4, 2017 |
| Publisher | Taylor and Francis, 2017 |
| Pages | pp 321-333 |
| Source | http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/19437/1/Accepted_Version_... |
| Keywords | Women ; Middle aged ; Older women ; Widows ; Childless ; Single persons ; Loneliness ; Qualitative Studies ; United Kingdom. |
| Annotation | Greater longevity in the UK population has led to the increasing diversity of women experiencing ageing in a multitude of ways. Internationally, gender inequalities in ageing are still relatively invisible within both government policy and everyday life for particular groups of women. This article explores the concept of women growing older "solo" _ by which the authors mean women who find themselves without a partner and ageing without children as they move into later life. The authors report on the findings from a mixed-methods survey of 76 solo women in the UK aged 50 years and over. The survey results provide a broader overview of the issues and challenges faced by these women as they move into later life. Qualitative data from the survey captured respondents' perspectives about the links between their relationships status and well-being in later life. The survey data also highlighted specific cumulative disadvantages emerging for some women as a result of their solo lifestyles. The authors discuss two key themes that were identified, "solo-loneliness" and "meaningful futures", in conjunction with the relevant literature. They make suggestions for future research within gender and ageing studies that could enhance more positive approaches to solo lifestyles. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-180112229 A |
| Classmark | SH: SE: BD: SP: SU: SQ: DV: 3DP: 8 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|