International Year of Older Women in the Caribbean, The status of Older Women in the Caribbean

The increase in the number of persons 65 years and over is a worldwide phenomenon causing communities and governments to address the socio-economic, political, institutional and other issues occasioned by this development.

Here in the Caribbean, the population explosion began in 1920 with a significant decline in death rates and high or increasing birth rates. Currently, the English-speaking Caribbean has on e of the oldest populations in the Southern Hemisphere.

A number of Caribbean countries have elderly populations, which approximate the proportions of industrial countries. The over 60 age group is expected to increase rapidly over the next 15 to 25 years in all Caribbean countries except Haiti. In fact, the over 60 age group will constitute more that 20% of the population of countries like Barbados and Jamaica.

When we examine the status of older women, again we note that the situation in the Caribbean bears out the "international" (read industrial country) data. Women live longer than men; there aremore female elders than male, women do now and will continue to constitute the greater proportion of the "oldest old" - persons 75 years and older.

In addition there is the likelihood that the older woman will live alone in her later years due to "widowhood". However demographics are not the only reason for urging that attention be paid to the status of female elders in the Caribbean. There are two other critical factors that should be taken into consideration. The first is the influence of gender in the socio-psychological, economic and public spheres, and the second is the impact of contemporary macro-economic policy. Both of these have implications for the quality of life which Caribbean women enjoy.

Lee Sennott-Miller sets out an admittedly "worse case scenario" of the Latin American and Caribbean woman at mid-life and older "

"Her cultural values and the values to which she herself subscribes, render a woman by definition, less useful as she ages, since she can no longer bear children. In rural areas she may have been abandoned by both husband and children and may be required to provide and care for her grand children and elderly parents as well."

She notes that the older woman risks not being able to qualify for old age assistance because of her own, and her spouse’s employment history, and faces a future of increasing dependency.

Gloria Scott has noted that women’s propensity to spend most of their excess income on their families makes them less able to accumulate property or other defenses which may protect their status in old age.

The consequences for women of the neo-liberal economic and social policiy framework being pursued by Caribbean governments have been extensively documented.

Economic liberalization and structural adjustment have seen dramatic reductions in public sector expenditures, especially in the social services. This has had the effect of rendering unemployed or pushing into less durable and remunerative forms of employment, the women who constitute the majority of workers in the social services, and also of imposing a further demand on women to provide substitues for publicly sponsored social services under the guise of "community care" social programmes.

Regrettably gender blindness on the one hand and ageism on the other appears to have conspired to prevent, with few exceptions, the emergence of effective policy frameworks and interventions in this area. Research in the area of aging in the Caribbean is severely limited, and when it occurs, far more attention is paid to the health/disease related aspects of the process of aging. Consequently, even when "the gender aspects" are addressed, the analysis rarely moves beyond description and tentative recommendations concerning the need to strengthen the support systems for older women.

A similar defiency is found on the other side of the fence in the area of women’s studies/gender analysis and policy. Thus the Regional Programme of Action for the Women of Latin America and the Caribbean, 1995-2001, which addresse the needs of women in several sectors, contains only one direct reference to older women and this with regards to the promotion of research into her health care needs. The NGO Platform for Action prepared by CAFRA in 1994, takes no position on the situation of older women.

Shulamit Reinharz has suggested that feminist are as much subject to ageism as other members of society, and it is only as leaders of the movement age, that the issue is emerging on the agenda.

References

Shulamit Reinharzz. "Feminis and anti-ageism: emergent connections." In Health and economic status of older women, edited by A. Herzog, Karen Holden and Mildred Seltzer. Amityville, NY: Baywood Publishing, 1989.

Edited from a paper presented to the Second International and Caribbean Conference of Social Work Educators, Georgetow, Guyana, July 1995.