scholarly journals Silence or Voice? Agency Freedom among Elderly Women Living in Extended Families in Urban India

Author(s):  
Ildikó Asztalos Morell ◽  
Santa De ◽  
Pravina Mahadalkar ◽  
Carl Johansson ◽  
Lena-Karin Gustafsson

The preferential form of living for the elderly in India is within the extended family. India is undergoing rapid economic development, an increase in mobility, and changes in gender norms due to an increase in women’s labour force participation, which places challenges on traditional intergenerational relationships. Ageing and the well-being of the elderly is a rising concern, especially considering that their proportion of the population is expected to grow rapidly in coming decades. There is a lack of universal state provision for the elderly’s basic needs, which is especially profound for elderly women, since most do not have an independent income. This leaves the elderly dependent upon the benevolence of their adult children’s families or other relatives. This paper explores, with help of narrative analysis and critical contributions from capability theory, elderly women’s agency freedoms and how this can be contextualised with their varying capability sets. With help of Spivak’s notion of the silent subaltern, the paper anchors elderly women’s abilities to voice to their agency freedom. The master narrative of the silent supportive wife and side-lined mother-in-law as well as three counter-narratives explore alternative agencies taken by elderly women.

1989 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyriakos S. Markides

Increased survival by blacks and Hispanics is causing a widening of the sex imbalance of the elderly population much like we have observed in the general population. These demographic trends point toward greater widowhood among minority women and continuing high rates of poverty. In addition, we can expect increased rates of disability in minority elderly women, increased dependency, worsening intergenerational relationships, and higher rates of institutionalization.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muno Mohamed Osman

This research study explores the experiences of working African immigrant mothers in accessing formal childcare services in Toronto. I start the study with an over view of the literature on the topics of access to childcare service and women’s labour force participation. I then review social reproduction and black feminist theories; the theoretical framework for my research. I also highlight the current state of childcare in Canada and how this affects African immigrant mothers who work. The study includes qualitative in-depth interviews with four such mothers who talk about their challenges and experiences in balancing work and family responsibilities in Toronto. The study found that the mothers are dissatisfied with several aspects of the childcare services they use or have used in the past. The mothers also face many struggles owing to patriarchal gender norms in their households and loss of extended family supports after immigration.


Author(s):  
Rachel Margolis ◽  
Bruno Arpino

Intergenerational relationships between grandparents and grandchildren can offer tremendous benefits to family members of each generation. The demography of grandparenthood – the timing, length and population characteristics – shape the extent to which young children have grandparents available, how many grandparents are alive, and the duration of overlap with grandparents. In this chapter, we examine how the demography of grandparenthood varies across 16 countries in Europe and two countries in North America, and why it is changing. Next, we examine variation in two key determinants of intergenerational relationships – the labour force participation and health of grandparents. Last, we comment on some important changes in the demography of grandparenthood that may come in the future.


2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zenaida R. Ravanera ◽  
Fernando Rajulton

Using the longitudinal panel data collected through the Canadian Surveys of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) from 1993 to1998, we examined the hypotheses that (a) higher education delays marriage; (b) labour force participation and earnings of women, like those of men, increase the likelihood of marriage; and, (c) the magnitude of the effects of education and income varies by life course stages of the youth. Analyses were done for men aged 17-19, 20-22, and 23-25 and for women aged 15-17, 18-20, and 21-23 at the start of the panel surveys. Our findings confirm our hypotheses, namely, a longer stay in school lowers the risk of marrying while greater economic well-being increases the risk. The results also show that the effects of wages and salaries are strongest among the middle cohorts of men (20-22) and women (18-20) who are at the stage of forming their own independent lives.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
KOUL NGWE MANGUELLE Maximilien

Abstract If employment is recognized as a key driver for growth, development and well-being improvement, human capital is probably a main determinant of the labour force participation. By often analyzing this relationship in wage earning jobs, studies used to leave self-employment untreated despite the fact that its proportion is growing significantly in several countries. This leads us to the following question: does the accumulating human capital determine access to all forms of employment? Focusing on young people, this article analyzes effects of the educational level used as a proxy of the accumulating human capital on the choice of the working labour force status in Cameroon. Using discrete-choice models on data drew from the second Employment and Informal Sector Survey carried out by the National Institute of Statistics, empirical findings reveal that educated young people are more likely to make a decision to work as wage earned and the corresponding probability rises with the increasing of their educational levels. However, the willingness to become self-employed decline with the rising of the educational level. Therefore, compared to the decision to work as a wage earned, becoming a self-employed does not appear as a human capital outcome. This paradoxical result for a low wage economy suggests a reform of educational and training systems starting at least from high school with emphasizes in sectors with a high potential of self-employment development and a setting-up of an apprenticeship plan.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Lucky Ade Sessiani

<p>Elderly women experience loneliness related to unexpected situations of partner loss (husband's death). Loneliness can have an impact on subjective well-being, life satisfaction, quality of life, mental and physical health, and even death. The purpose of this study was to describe and understand experiences related to loneliness for elderly widows. The subjects involved were 6 (six) widows due to the death of their husbands (widowed), widows of more than 1 year, and no history of psychological disorders. Methods of data collection using interviews and observation. This study resulted in the conclusion that an elderly widow can experience loneliness due to the loss of a spouse who is taken away by death. Subjective well-being and perceived life satisfaction are the results of a religious coping strategy that is effective in over­coming loneliness experienced. When feelings of losing a spouse can be overcome by religious behavior, enthusiasm for survival and re-establishing social interaction, the elderly can feel well-being and life satisfaction.</p>


Author(s):  
Amanda Rafaella Araújo De Campos ◽  
Suely Maria Satoko Moriya Inumaru ◽  
Elizabeth Rodrigues De Morais ◽  
Marcelo Silva Fantinati ◽  
Adriana Márcia Monteiro Fantinati

As chronological age increases, people become less active, thus reducing their functional abilities (CF). For the elderly, CF represents a potential decision and action in their lives, since the lack of autonomy and independence generates a great vulnerability of this individual compromising well-being and quality of life (QoL). The objective of this study was to evaluate the aquatic exercise program in the quality of life and functional capacity of the elderly of UNATI PUC-GO. This study is characterized by being almost experimental longitudinal and quantitative, in which the initial population was composed of 30 elderly women, finishing 16 within the inclusion criteria. The QOL assessment was performed using the WHOQOL-Bref questionnaire and the six-minute walk test (6MWT) was used to assess functional capacity (FC). Data collection was performed at the Life School Clinic of PUC - GO for a period of three months. Pre- and post-intervention comparisons were performed by the paired T-test. Statistic performed in SPSS version 20.0 adopting significance with value of p≤0.05 and the normality of the data was tested using the Shapiro-Wilk test. A significant statistical difference was found in the comparison between pre and post TC6 '(p


Author(s):  
Hermann Zeitlhofer

AbstractDespite the growing interest historians have expressed in old age and ageing in recent decades, our knowledge of the labour force participation of elderly people in pre-industrial times is still very limited. This is due to the fact that historians have, for far too long, discussed ‘old age’ mostly in terms of ‘providing for the elderly’ whilst more or less ignoring the wide range of activities the elderly were engaged in as well as the high rate of life-long labour force participation before the late 19th century.This study, on the one hand, discusses the social position of ‘retirees’ (former rural house owners), a social position often seen as an archetype for modern ‘retirement’. Numerous examples are presented from the regional case study of South Bohemia as well as from other parts of Central Europe showing that pre-modern retirees quite often continued to work in many different ways. In many cases inter vivos transfers of land and houses were not undertaken in order to allow for retirement from all activities but rather to facilitate a change in the individual’s own main focus of activity from one occupation to another. In a second part of the study the economy of makeshifts of the poor is analysed. Using rare sources from several South Bohemian parishes enables us to document the importance of the mixed economy of the poorest section of the rural elderly.


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