{"title":"Intersectionality of age and gender discrimination: Its impact on job satisfaction among older female workers in comparison with other demographic groups.","authors":"Hidehiro Sugisawa, Ken Harada, Yoko Sugihara, Shizuko Yanagisawa, Masaya Shimmei, Hiromi Kitajima","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2700786","DOIUrl":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2700786","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigates the effects of age and gender discrimination on job satisfaction, with a specific focus on older female workers who encounter the intersection of these two biases. To elucidate how these factors operate simultaneously, the study evaluates four conceptual models: (1) Additive, where each form of discrimination has a unique, cumulative influence; (2) Synergistic, where one form strengthens the influence of the other; (3) Invisibility/Suppression, where one form weakens the influence of the other; and (4) Integrative, where age and gender discrimination function as a single latent factor. Data collected via a web survey of regular and non-regular workers compared older women (aged 50+) with older men, younger women (aged 20-39), and younger men. The analysis revealed that the integrative model accurately reflected the effects on job satisfaction across all these groups, including older women, Notably, the influence of age discrimination on job satisfaction was found to be more substantial than that of gender discrimination only in older workers. These findings suggest that while the experiences of older women are distinct, antidiscrimination measures addressing both age and gender are broadly effective in enhancing job satisfaction. Additionally, the study highlights an urgent need to prioritize and strengthen anti-age discrimination policies to support the professional well-being of older women in the workforce.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1-22"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148550677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond loneliness. Lesbian aging, care, and the politics of loneliness.","authors":"Julia Chrétien","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2703632","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2026.2703632","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article examines loneliness in lesbian aging in order to challenge individualistic and miserabilist understandings of both loneliness and later life. Drawing on a lesbian feminist materialist perspective, it conceptualizes loneliness as a relational and political condition embedded in the intersecting social relations of gender, sexuality, age, and class. The analysis is based on a two-year ethnographic study conducted in Barcelona, combining participant observation within an association of older lesbians and 30 in-depth interviews with lesbians aged between 55 and 80. The findings show that loneliness cannot be reduced to an individual feeling or to the absence of social ties. Rather, it reveals the material and symbolic costs associated with lesbian life courses and with occupying a position outside the heterosexual organization of intimacy, family, and care, including experiences of invisibilization, economic precarity, and the unequal organization of care. At the same time, loneliness emerged as an ambivalent experience that could also be associated with autonomy, self-preservation, and forms of learning acquired through lesbian life courses. The study further highlights the central role of caregiving and the ways lesbian loneliness is shaped by asymmetries of recognition and reciprocity. Finally, it shows that feminist and lesbian spaces do not simply alleviate loneliness but provide collective infrastructures through which it can be negotiated and experienced with others. By approaching loneliness as an analytical lens rather than as an individual deficit, the article contributes to feminist, queer and critical gerontological debates and argues for a politicized understanding of aging and loneliness beyond cisheterosexual and heteronormative frameworks.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1-17"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148550685","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gabriëlle L de Pooter, Giulia Nazzaro, Katrien De Graeve
{"title":"Heteronormativity revisited: Escape fantasies of two older heterosexual women in a Belgian nursing home.","authors":"Gabriëlle L de Pooter, Giulia Nazzaro, Katrien De Graeve","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2703626","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2026.2703626","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Unpartnered heterosexual women constitute a significant demographic within nursing home populations, yet their sexuality remains largely understudied. Although recent healthcare policies and research focus on improving residents' sexual wellbeing, they often reflect heteronormative assumptions, for instance by prioritizing life-long sex for heterosexual monogamous couples. While the heteronormativity of nursing home spaces has been highlighted in critical gerontological approaches that draw on LGBTQ+ lived experiences, its structuring of heterosexual women's lived experiences remains under-researched. This paper explores this gap through the stories of two heterosexual women living in dementia or psychiatric care units in a Belgian nursing home, both with a history of sex work. Embedded in a wider study using in-depth interviews, talking group sessions, and participant observation, it examines their experiences, desires, and imagination of sex and how these are entangled within the nursing home space. It reveals notions of later life sex and desire that extend beyond frameworks focused on activity or performance, to include imagination as a meaningful dimension. Moreover, the women's imageries of alternative relationships, spaces, and strategies for evading the discomforts of institutional life emerge as disruptors of heteronormative assumptions. Through this analysis, we expand understandings of women's heterosexuality in later life beyond heteronormativity and beyond binaries of desexualization and successful ageing. We underscore the value of intersectional and Critical New Materialist lenses that center on embodiment and practices within (imagined) space, rather than focusing primarily on heterosexual identity. These perspectives illuminate textured lived experiences that contribute to diversified understandings of sexual wellbeing in later life.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148498253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Md Kamrul Hasan, Mohammad Sajjad Hossain, Natalie D Pope
{"title":"Psychosocial challenges faced by older widows in Bangladesh: A qualitative study.","authors":"Md Kamrul Hasan, Mohammad Sajjad Hossain, Natalie D Pope","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2701465","DOIUrl":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2701465","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Widowhood in later life is a critical, yet understudied, issue in Bangladesh, where patriarchal norms and limited social welfare infrastructure exacerbate the vulnerabilities of older women. This exploratory qualitative study examined the psychosocial challenges faced by 20 older widows from both rural and urban areas of Bangladesh. Using a basic interpretative approach, data were collected in person via semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study reveal three themes: (1) being trapped in a cycle of poverty, marked by malnutrition, inadequate healthcare, and financial dependency; (2) experiences of exclusion and neglect within families and communities, resulting in diminished dignity and social isolation; and (3) repeated harms, including verbal abuse, emotional mistreatment, and, in some cases, sexual harassment. These challenges reflect multiple, interconnected psychological issues that have implications for the well-being of older widows in Bangladesh. The study underscores the urgent need for social protection policies for older widows, improved access to healthcare and mental health services for them, and mechanisms that ensure their inheritance and property rights. This study contributes to global gerontological scholarship by documenting the day-to-day challenges of older widows in Bangladesh. Findings point to potential policy implications to advance widow welfare in resource-constrained settings.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1-15"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148438472","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Silver-haired teachers going to the west: Retired female university teachers' spatial praxis and self-reconstruction in Western China.","authors":"Qian Yang","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2701478","DOIUrl":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2701478","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study aims to explore the participation of retired female university teachers in China in the state-led \"Silver-Haired Teachers Going to the West\" program, viewing this participation as a unique form of spatial praxis and a process of active aging. Faced with identity transitions brought by retirement and the prevalent dual discrimination based on gender and age in society, these silver-haired female intellectuals take up teaching positions at universities in underdeveloped western China. Drawing on six months of ethnographic fieldwork at a university in the western region and in-depth interviews with seven female participants, this study focuses on analyzing three interrelated dimensions. First is body-space negotiation-how these teachers challenge societal stereotypes about the physical frailty and spatial limitations of elderly women, and transform frontier university campuses into platforms for intellectual vitality. Second is trans-local care networks-how they build a flexible care system to balance their role as caregivers in eastern family spaces and their role as mentors in western campus spaces. Third is cognitive territorialization-how they challenge the existing \"center-periphery\" knowledge geography pattern and patriarchal structures in academic fields through knowledge transfer and the establishment of cross-generational female alliances. The study finds that their practice of moving to western China is more than a geographical relocation; it is an agentive process of self-reconstruction. This research provides a new perspective for understanding the later life, gender identity, and social participation of aging women.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1-16"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148425360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"I have lived proudly as myself\": A Japanese woman's narrative of her life and aging.","authors":"Els-Marie Anbäcken","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2699894","DOIUrl":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2699894","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This longitudinal qualitative study, encompassing nearly three decades, evolved from interviews with the \"Suzuki\" couple conducted for my PhD thesis in the period 1992-1997. Following Mr. Suzuki's death in1997, the aim was to follow turning points and crises in Ms. Suzuki's life and show how she handled them in relation to how she wanted to live her life as an aging (widowed) woman in the Japanese society in transition. The empirical material consists of written notes from our conversations. The findings are described as a 'field note narrative'. The analysis of the ongoing process of life storytelling, in which past, present and future were intertwined, was guided by narrative gerontology and autoethnography, as I was a co-creator of her story. The narrative is sorted into three chronological phases: 1) Mr. Suzuki dies; Ms. Suzuki lives alone, actively maintaining her way of life. 2) Continuation of Ms. Suzuki's lifestyle, with signs of forgetfulness. 3) Ms. Suzuki visits a 'day service' regularly, finally moving to a care home, where she dies in 2021. The story of Ms. Suzuki, who is an active agent in how she presents and positions herself, is discussed in terms of narrative learning and integrative life storytelling. Through her long-term narrative process, the unique dynamics of an aging woman emerge - one who, respectfully supported by her children, boldly pursues individual choices, learning and meaning-making, even when dementia becomes evident.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1-18"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148425346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"With a light of their own: Re-imagining ageing femininity in two contemporary dramatic monologues.","authors":"Núria Casado-Gual, Inesa Shevchenko-Hotsuliak","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2700784","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08952841.2026.2700784","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article offers a textual analysis of Mojisola Adebayo's <i>STARS</i> (2019) and Marina Carr's <i>iGirl</i> (2021). Both plays were conceived through the dramaturgical form of a monologue; yet, they respond to extremely different interpretations of old age as well as of theatricality. On the one hand, Carr's piece clearly employs non-Naturalistic strategies to depict the older woman within a fully symbolic and depersonalized sphere, namely, as the embodiment of a polyvocal allegory of humanity that is expressed through an aged, feminine lens. On the other hand, Adebayo's piece creates a 'confessional' monologue with a predominantly realistic portrayal of ageing at its core: while the protagonist's ethnic, social-class and gender-specific identities render her marginal, she favours a story of late-life desire that contests the ageist and sexist components of the narrative of decline. Through a close reading of each playtext in the light of intersectional discourses of age and gender, we intend to demonstrate how these two Anglo-Irish monologues have the capacity to both absorb and promote different images and conceptions of old age from the contemporary stage. As will be argued, the distinctive dramaturgical devices and theatrical strategies employed in Adebayo's and Carr's pieces for mature women actors not only singularize the experience of older women on the stage, but also update the archetypal view of the theatre of the world by making them representatives of society and of humankind with a light of their own.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"1-14"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148413124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of Women & AgingPub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-04-22DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2026.2655453
Danyang Lei, Yixin Jiang, Karim Hadjri, Kar Him Mo
{"title":"\"Three women make a drama\": Neighborhood interactions among older Chinese female migrants.","authors":"Danyang Lei, Yixin Jiang, Karim Hadjri, Kar Him Mo","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2655453","DOIUrl":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2655453","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Neighborhood environment plays a central role in influencing older migrants' social interactions; yet, how these interactions are mediated by gendered roles, cultural norms, and spatial organization remains underexplored. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with Hong Kong-born women living in subsidized sheltered housing near Newcastle's Chinatown in June 2024, this study adopts a relational perspective to examine how socio-spatio-temporal dynamics shape everyday social engagement. Thematic analysis identifies three interconnected themes: social relationships, social life in place, and temporal change. The findings show that close-knit residential settings can both facilitate everyday interaction and intensify social tension, leading some women to avoid nearby communal spaces. Ethnic enclaves, such as Chinatown, function as important sites of belonging while also constraining wider social integration. Aging trajectories, caregiving responsibilities, and the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic further reshape social participation, with women's social engagement being particularly contingent on collective settings and social atmosphere. The study highlights the importance of staff-led routine activities, inclusive neighborhood spaces that accommodate caregiving, and targeted reinvestment in social infrastructure to support the social wellbeing of aging migrant women in the post-pandemic context.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"110-134"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147785379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of Women & AgingPub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-03-10DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2026.2640610
Rabab Awad, Natalie Ulitsa, Liat Ayalon
{"title":"\"Heat within, heat without- nowhere to escape\": an intersectional perspective on Israeli women's challenges during menopause.","authors":"Rabab Awad, Natalie Ulitsa, Liat Ayalon","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2640610","DOIUrl":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2640610","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study explores how Israeli women experience menopause in the context of climate change, with a specific focus on the intersection between internal hot flashes and external heat stress during the summer months. Using a qualitative methodology, 40 semi-structured interviews were conducted with women aged 42-60 who reported experiencing hot flashes as a symptom of menopause. The analysis reveals that coping with menopausal symptoms does not occur in isolation but is deeply embedded within environmental, material, and social contexts. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources theory while using an intersectional lens, the study highlights the significance of personal, interpersonal, material and social resources in managing the dual burden of internal and external heat. Based on these insights, the \"Within-Without Coping Model\" is proposed to conceptualize the layered and intersecting dimensions of coping. Although women in menopause should be recognized as a vulnerable population within climate and health policy, it is also important to acknowledge their agency and creativity in adjusting to the challenges. It is essential to develop gender- and climate-sensitive interventions that address the specific needs of women in midlife.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"95-109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147436614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of Women & AgingPub Date : 2026-07-01Epub Date: 2026-05-05DOI: 10.1080/08952841.2026.2660104
Minsung Sohn, Mi Sun Kim
{"title":"Cognitive vulnerability and social support among aging women caregivers.","authors":"Minsung Sohn, Mi Sun Kim","doi":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2660104","DOIUrl":"10.1080/08952841.2026.2660104","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This 15-year longitudinal study examined the association between family caregiving and cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults in South Korea, focusing on gender differences and the moderating role of social support. Using data from 6,481 participants in the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (2006-2020), cognitive function was assessed with the Korean Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE). Family caregiving experience was defined as reporting caregiving in at least two survey waves between 2006 and 2020. Repeated caregiving exposure was associated with lower cognitive performance in later life, independent of baseline characteristics. Women caregivers showed significantly lower cognitive performance (β = -1.06, <i>p</i> < .001), roughly equivalent to two to three years of age-related decline, while higher education and more frequent social interactions mitigated these effects. Social support, measured by the frequency of meetings with friends or neighbors, moderated the caregiving-cognition association, suggesting a protective gradient. These findings highlight the cumulative cognitive burden associated with repeated caregiving involvement and underscore the need for gender- and age-sensitive interventions. Promoting sustained social engagement may represent a viable strategy to protect caregivers' cognitive health in rapidly aging societies.</p>","PeriodicalId":47001,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Women & Aging","volume":" ","pages":"135-147"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8,"publicationDate":"2026-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147844518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}