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Social Policy for Elderly Women

As a group, elderly women face specific social challenges for which activism and advocacy work, with the goal of policy change, is much needed. Most of these challenges center around discrimination based on age and sex

  1. Significance

    • Since women live longer than men, and also tend to make less money, the risk of elderly women ending up in poverty is high. This has created a need for policy change in terms of services like social security benefits that are important to the well-being of elderly women.

    Types

    • Elderly women are also frequent victims of violence and abuse in many countries. In places such as southeast Africa, violence against elderly women is socially acceptable, and human right organizations work to educate and change policy to bring justice to abused older women.

    Considerations

    • Nutrition and health are also major concerns for elderly women. For example, according to the World Health Organization, many countries have developed policies to specifically address malnutrition in elderly women, most prominently osteoporosis.

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