1 - Critical debates and themes on ageing, masculinities and social relations

Summary

Introduction

What it means to be a man in older age reflects different social expectations attached to gender and masculinities and different levels of social participation that vary across domains of work, public life and home life. In this edited volume we centre on the ways in which shifting gendered expectations attached to men in older age (historical and contemporary) configure social connections with significant others, including intimate partners, biological family and friends. This international volume brings to the fore the ways in which critical transitions associated with ill-health (physical and mental), bereavement and loss, and changes to social participation and mobility intersect with changing expectations about being a man in later life and ‘doing’ masculinity in old age in an increasingly ageing society.

Within contemporary scholarship on men and masculinities, societal concerns for a ‘crisis of masculinity’ have been assayed and debunked (Wojnicka, 2021), and there has been an increasing proliferation in the ways in which masculinities are understood, embodied and performed. Studies of contemporary changes to masculinities have flourished but the intersections between men, ageing and changing masculinities remains less intensely examined and understood. While there has been a gradual increase in scholarship on men, ageing and masculinities over the last two decades, little attention has been given to, first, the social relations of men in later life and implications for enhancing their social wellbeing and counteracting ageist discourse, and, second, the social connections of older men from seldom heard or marginalised groups. Gender matters to the ways in which older adults experience and maintain social connections in later life however to date there is limited examination of how masculinities complicate or consolidate men’s social relationships in older age. Through this collection we seek to address these knowledge gaps in gerontological scholarship. In particular, this collection advances critical debates and themes on ageing, masculinities and gender relations. Throughout the chapters, contributors make visible how older men experience ageing and changes to social relationships across diverse social, cultural and national settings, and highlight how masculine identities and practices shape men’s significant relationships with others.