The position of the older person in society as well as in the workforce is receiving an increasing amount of attention at the present time. However there is very little historical knowledge as to the forces which shaped the withdrawal of older persons from gainful economic activity earlier this century. The research outlined below explores some of the precedents which shaped contemporary attitudes towards older workers in general, and the relationship between age and unemployment in particular — during a period of low labour demand.

For older persons, age discrimination can undermine equal participation in modern service and consumer societies. One way to tackle age discrimination is to implement anti-discrimination policy and legislation. However, age discrimination is an ambiguous concept that can be interpreted in different ways and differences in the interpretation can impact the scope and application of related policy and legislation. Hence, to understand how policy, legislation and their central constructs operate within society, it is necessary to look beyond the letter of the law or policy text and explore the interpretations of age discrimination employed by actors in the field. We interviewed experts from Austria and Ireland, who by virtue of their professional or representative position co-structure the conditions for people to claim they have experienced age discrimination. Based on 12 expert interviews and two focus groups, each involving six representatives of the major national advocacy and interest organisations on ageing, we reconstructed four interpretation patterns of age discrimination: age discrimination as the ‘denial of dignity’, as the ‘denial of recognition of contribution’, as the ‘denial of participation’ and as the ‘lack of consideration of need’. The findings are discussed with reference to the concepts of recognition and representation, and considerations are provided on possible legal and political implications of this research.

This is a retrospective cohort study based on data from five nursing homes which aims to appraise how physical and cognitive characteristics of nursing home residents were associated with the use of restraints, and to provide information on their prevalence in Spain. The goal was to assess, in a visual way, the possible interactions between the nursing homes residents’ characteristics and their association with the use of restraints. Motivation, risk factors, characteristics of the residents analysed by validated rating systems that assess mobility, level of dependence, cognitive condition and nutritional status, and their association with the use of restraints, were described by means of linear and non-linear multivariate approaches in the form of self-organised maps. Findings showed that the prevalence of restraints was high when compared to other developed countries. The visual analysis reinforced the knowledge that a greater impairment was associated with the use of restraints and vice versa. However, the residents’ characteristics were not always associated with the use of restraints. Subjective factors seem to play a relevant role in decision-making, so it is important to assess risk factors continuously and determine the actual need for the use of restraints from an individual perspective by basing the criteria on specific objectives, and on consistent, reproducible and reliable methods. Initiatives to minimise these subjective factors should be promoted. Likewise, a clear definition of physical restraints should be offered at each centre. In addition, effective legislation that clearly states the need, alternatives and motivation for the use of restraints is needed.

The need to ensure the economic wellbeing and quality of life of those who reach the official retirement age is a matter of concern in the world of social services and in social policy making. Since some working older adults may be forced to retire when they reach the official retirement age while others retire voluntarily, the study is based on a dedicated survey among 508 persons who retired both willingly and unwillingly for good after reaching the official retirement age and 437 persons who continued working uninterruptedly. The findings show that the odds of staying on the job after retirement age are contingent on the socio-demographic and health-related characteristics of the older adult. Furthermore, the economic predictors of remaining in the labour force after retirement age depend on how strongly the older adult wishes to retire. Those who continue working after retirement age and those who retire willingly are undifferentiated in the level of financial support that they give others. Comparing older adults who continue working uninterruptedly with those who retire unwillingly, the chances of being among the former are higher among those who are better off before reaching retirement age. These results emphasise the need to extend welfare and financial-support policies to older adults who are forced to retire, in order to minimise the economic blow that this path to retirement causes.

Critical and feminist ageing scholarship has drawn attention to how dominant discourses of ageing negatively impact older women's identities and social lives. While research intersecting migration and ageing has broadly focused on older immigrants' settlement experiences, very little is known about the discursive influences over older immigrant women's sense of agency and social relations. To address this knowledge gap, this study explores the subjectivity-formations of older South Asian Muslim women engaged in transnational migration. Narrative and discourse analysis principles were used to conduct and analyse life story-based interviews with 15 South Asian Muslim older women who recently migrated to Toronto, Canada. Findings indicate that participant subjectivity-formations are shaped by: (a) discourses of ageing; (b) socio-cultural–religious discourses; and (c) discourses of transnational migration. In response, participants engaged in dynamic strategies including conforming, negotiating, creating alternative narratives and/or resisting these discourses to organise their lives. These findings reinforce the continued need to trace the governmentality of structural conditions over ageing migrant women's lives and their responsive strategies to manage these impacts.

Widowhood is often described through stereotypes and images of passive, weak, lonely and dependent women. This study presents additional aspects of widows who have chosen to continue their lives without a new spouse. It thus joins the recently growing body of knowledge which presents widowhood in a less one-dimensional way while referring to the complexity and different layers of widows' lives. A qualitative study was conducted with 30 women aged 63–87 who had been widows for 1–34 years. The findings showed that the dominant experience shared by all women is one of liberation and freedom – a feeling of independence that is expressed socially, personally and economically. Thus, alongside feelings of loneliness and adaptation difficulties, they also experience strength and empowerment. The term ‘gender contract’ serves as a theoretical explanation of the independence narrative that characterises the widows; the termination of the couple's gender contract allows them to redefine their priorities, identify themselves as active instead of passive figures and create for themselves a place of their own. By bringing widowhood to the centre of the discussion, the study gives legitimacy to a discourse on feelings less spoken about, such as relief, freedom and independence. In this way, the study contributes to the ongoing debate on widows by shattering the accepted myth of widows as vulnerable, weak and dependent but without underestimating the difficulties or ignoring the women's diversity.

The implications of an ageing population for democracy are far reaching, however, older people are often treated as a homogenous group. This article used survey data from 29 countries across Europe, alongside qualitative interviews with the older old (people aged 70 and older) in the North-West of England (United Kingdom). The findings suggest that voting declines amongst the older old and women aged 85 and older were less likely to report having voted compared to men in the same age group. Older women aged 85 and older were also less likely to feel that people like them could have an influence on politics. In terms of a sense of the future, having grandchildren was associated with the likelihood of reporting having voted, but being older than the country average life expectancy was not. The interviews with the older old in the North-West of England revealed that many could remember the first time they had voted and its lasting personal significance. However, many also described becoming politically disengaged in their late old age. Older people also reported barriers to voting, including difficulties in accessing polling stations and in using postal voting. There was a desire amongst the older old to see more young people voting and frustration about their lack of interest, including amongst their own children and grandchildren. This suggests a concern for democracy and future generations. As the population ages and people are living longer, it is important to develop the understanding of voter turnout amongst the older old at different ages and the barriers they can face.

By the year 2030, 19–21 per cent of the population of New Zealand (NZ) is projected to be aged 65 and over. Like many countries, life expectancy in NZ differs by gender but also ethnicity: in 2019, life expectancy for Māori (indigenous) women was 77.1 years compared with 84.4 years for non-Māori women. If Māori and NZ European women are to flourish in later life, examining the factors associated with their wellbeing is paramount. The current study draws on the Life Course Perspective to explore how wellbeing is associated with age-related life events among mid- to later-life NZ women. The women in this study (N = 19,624) are participants in the 2018 wave of the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, a national probabilistic 20-year longitudinal study (mean age = 55.62; Māori = 10.8%, NZ European = 89.2%). We found that stressful life events were negatively associated with life satisfaction but positively associated with meaning in life. Māori women exhibited lower levels of life satisfaction but there were no ethnic differences for meaning in life; however, Māori and NZ European women showed different patterns of significant correlates associated with meaning in life. Findings highlight the necessity of an intersectional approach to the study of mid- to later-life wellbeing and the utility of measuring wellbeing in more than one way within NZ's unique cultural-historical context.

Although life-story work is an established form of support for people with dementia and their carers, culturally Deaf people who are sign language users have been excluded from this practice. There is no evidence base for the cultural coherence of this approach with Deaf people who sign, nor any prior investigation of the linguistic and cultural adaptation that might be required for life-story work to be effective for sign language users with dementia. Given the lack of empirical work, this conceptual thematic literature review approaches the topic by first investigating the significance of storytelling practices amongst Deaf communities across the lifespan before using the findings to draw out key implications for the development of life-story work with culturally Deaf people who experience dementia and their formal and informal carers (whether Deaf or hearing). The reviewed work is presented in three themes: (a) the cultural positioning of self and others, (b) learning to be Deaf and (c) resistance narratives and narratives of resistance. The article concludes that life-story work has the potential to build on lifelong storying practices by Deaf people, the functions of which have included the (re)forming of cultural identity, the combating of ontological insecurity, knowledge transmission, the resistance of false identity attribution, and the celebration of language and culture.

Women's magazines are widely read in Canada. The popularity of such magazines is significant because critical gerontologists, primarily drawing on content analyses of the magazines, often argue that these publications convey problematic messages about ageing. This article broaches the subject of women's magazines and ageing from a different vantage point, that of the older woman reader herself. This audience-centred research draws on 21 semi-structured interviews with Canadian women over the age of 55. The study examines what older women say about the ageing-related content of women's magazines, along with what they say about how, when and why they read these magazines. Findings illustrate that participants are aware of the inadequate and unrealistic representations of older women in women's magazines. Nonetheless, they value the publications as a source of practical information on a variety of topics and as a light and undemanding source of entertainment and relaxation. The study reveals how participants assess and deploy magazine contents and characteristics in ways that contribute to, and are informed by, their lives and identities as older women. Against the broader cultural context of ageism, using and talking about women's magazines enables the participants to position themselves as knowledgeable and informed on a variety of topics and in multiple interactions, both in explicit reference to the magazines themselves and more generally in their lives.