Older Women and Leisure in Singapore

Abstract

The leisure of older women is subject to prejudices of both ageism and sexism. Gender roles and identities lock women into leisure which is experienced mostly within the confines of the home. The lack of material resources also limits their ability to undertake a wider range, as well as a greater number, of leisure activities within the public sphere outside the home. These conditions become emphasised in the more mature years of a woman's life, such that leisure expectations that are assumed for the Third Age seldom materialise. In the study of older women in Singapore, it was found that many engaged in home-bound activities and where these extended into public spaces, the activities conformed to gender and age expectations and according to material resources. The paper argues that leisure, especially for older women, must be contextualised; it requires an understanding of how social ideologies construct gender and age identities and roles, and therefore shape the leisure outcomes and spaces in which they are carried out.