Feminist gerontology aims to understand gender as a relational and dynamic concept that shapes social organizations and identities. It views gender relations as embedded power structures that have consequences for life chances. Feminist gerontology studies both women and men, and explores their linked experiences within webs of intersecting social forces like age, class, race and ethnicity. It provides a framework for a more inclusive understanding of aging that considers how privilege and oppression differ for various groups of older people. Critics argue the field has oversimplified aging experiences by focusing on supposed "double jeopardy" or ignoring how power structures uniquely impact individuals who actively shape their own lives through intersecting social categories.

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2. The traditions of feminism
theorizing and research:
1. Expose social construction of
gender
2. Reveal the ways in which
patriarchal gender relations
reproduce inequality
3. Challenge gender as neither
natural nor essential
4. Provide a useful orientation to
research and theory in the
areas of aging and family
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3. FeministFeminist
GerontologyGerontology
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4. Deals only with “special”
population, such as women, and
excludes old men.
Understand gender as relationalrelational
Feminism “enables us to theorize gender relations: the
power relations that construct the interdependent
categories of man and woman.” (p.S305)
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5. What is feminist gerontology?
1. Using man as reference group, and woman are added to
the existing theoretical frameworks or models.
2. Consider gender as a fixed, demographic or descriptive
variable
Feminism gerontologists theorize gender relations as forces that
shape both social organizations and identities that emerge as men
and women interact with one another. Gender relations are
dynamic, constructed power relations embedded in social
processes and institutionalized in social arenas with important
consequences for life chances. It encompasses men and women
alike, exploring their linked experiences. It provides a theoretical
framework and knowledge built upon the experiences of groups
situated in a web of interlocking power relations.
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6. We study
women as well
as men!
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7. The aims of feminist gerontology
It provides an important framework for
exploring lives of all old people, including those
who are privileged on one or more dimensions.
The relational understanding of privilege and
oppression provides a basis from which we
can build a more inclusive and effective
understanding of old age. (p. S313)
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8. Why do we introduce feminist
perspective to gerontology
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Although gender relations are
included among the key structured
social relations, they appear
particularly vulnerable to
minimization. A primary reason is
the risk of discounting gender as a
central set of structured social
relations involving power
differentials, which too often “lose”
to class and race.

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10. The intersection of AGE and GENDER
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11. Women invisible?
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12. i. Women were studied as homogenous
objects/ groups/ collective female identity
ii. Woman, the opposite sex of men/ “the
other” (de Beauvior, male power define
themselves as essential beings, as subjects/
women non-essential beings, objects)
iii. Age should be included in the structural
categories of gender theoretical texts.
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13. Simone de Beauvoir
The Self/Subject is the active,
knowing subject of traditional
epistemology, and is by default
male. De Beauvoir argues that the
Other, who exists for the
Self/Subject in an asymmetrical
relationship, is female and
feminized, occupying a secondary
place in both concrete activity and
subjective consciousness. The
Other is not an equal complement
to the Self/Subject, but rather
serves as a projection of everything
the Self/Subject rejects:
immanence, passivity,
voicelessness.
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14. Old women invisible
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15. The construction of “the woman of
reproductive age” in research
• Selection of arenas and themes
• Model monopoly (eg. motherhood)
• Lack of problematization of age (excluded
from sampling/ 65+ women nonexistent/
stereotypes of old woman: in need of care)
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16. Asymmetries of power lead to uneven
attention in theory constructing
(McMullin, 2005)
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17. The interplay of
age and gender
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18. AGE
(ageism)
GENDER
(sexism)
The combination of sexism and ageism supposedly
make’s women’s aging more problematic than
men’s. (p 161)
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19. Brainstorm
Can you think of some
examples that challenge
the statement of
double-jeopardy of age
and gender? What are
women’s advantages in
aging？
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20. Group A: Physical
Group B: Mental
Group C: Social
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21. AGE
(ageism)
GENDER
(sexism)
Critiques of using double/triple/multiple jeopardy approach:
• Simplification, ignores that these structures of oppression are different
• Complex interplay between power relations can create qualitatively different
experiences.
• Disregard the roles of individuals as actors who create their own experiences, and
that, consequently, the interplay may be turned into assets for the individual
instead. (p.162) 21

22. Ingrid Arnet Connidis
She is Professor of Sociology at the
University of Western Ontario,
London, Canada.
Alexis J. Walker
•Alexis Walker holds the Jo Anne
Leonard Petersen Chair in
Gerontology and Family Studies
and is Professor of Human
Development and Family Sciences
at Oregon State University
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23. http://www.tudou.com/programs/vie
w/GdcAPSpAWRQ/
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24. individual: gendered selves
that are a product of
socialization,
internalization, identity
work, and construction of
the self.
interactional: women and
men face gendered
cultural expectations
about how they are to
behave in their
relationships, including
gendered views of status,
cognitive bias, needs for
protection and
protecting, and
subordinate positions.
institutional:
organizational
practices, legal
regulations, ideology
and distribution of
resources encourage
and reinforce gender
relations
Barbara Risman
Title: Professor
(University of Illinois,
Chicago)
Research Interests:
gender inequality and
families; feminist
activism and public
sociology
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25. INEQUALITY
age
class
sexual
orientation
ethnicity
race
gender
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26. Intersectionality
Within gender theory, the concept of
intersectionality was introduced in the
1990s to emphasize how power
relations, rather than being based on
additive principles, should be
understood as dynamic interactions.
(Collins, 1998; Crenshaw, 1993 1994
p.163)
Rather than examining gender, race,
class, and nation as distinctive
hierarchies, intersectionality examines
how they mutually construct one
another’s. (Collins, 1998)
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27. macrostructual
inequalities
Micro-level
power
relations
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Gender is institutionalized through ideology, practices,
constraints, conflicts and power, and challenges the macro-micro
dualism that characterized earlier attempts to link individual
experience with larger societal contexts. Feminists argue that
dichotomies such as macro-micro construct social ties in a way
that fosters power imbalance. (p.148)

28. Life course
A life-course perspective enables us to study the
dynamic interactions through life time.

29. Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind.
“It is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and
supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality
of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is
the freshness of deep springs of life
---- Samuek Ullman
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