NURS 5850

As women grow older the experience of aging is generally more difficult for them than for men. Somewhere in mid-life, anxieties about the aging process exacerbate the difficulties facing women in modern society. Disempowering older women is usually accomplished in small increments. “Old woman” is a pejorative label; the older a woman becomes, the less credibility she generally has; this is especially true for women of color, poor women, lesbians, and women who are physically challenged. While aging is a biological phenomenon, ageism is socially constructed. Specifically, under patriarchy, older women are seen as a burden, desexualized, and segregated by both men and younger women. They are usually not taken very seriously, nor seen as a threat. This course will explore the issues related to social, psychological, political, and economic factors that are major determinants to the well-being of aging women based upon race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, and class inequities.