Las mujeres y el envejecimiento en la investigación social (1950-2018)

Abstract

Resumen: Presentamos un estado del arte sobre los estudios del envejecimiento femenino en las ciencias sociales anglófonas e hispanohablantes, indagando cómo las mujeres mayores fueron representadas en estas investigaciones y buscando captar las contribuciones del feminismo a estos estudios. Revisaremos la emergencia de los debates gerontológicos sobre el envejecimiento (1950-1970) y la influencia de los posicionamientos feministas en los trabajos sociológicos y antropológicos sobre el tema (1970-1990). Discutiremos los giros hacia la confluencia entre género y edad en los estudios sociales (1990-2000) y la contribución crítica latinoamericana en castellano, articulada alrededor del concepto de organización social de los cuidados (2000-2010). En las consideraciones finales, ofreceremos nuestras reflexiones sobre la construcción de una perspectiva feminista en los estudios del envejecimiento femenino.

Older women and situated knowledge: A contribution from the narrative productions methodology.

“…In general, the scientific discourse has described older women as aging in more precarious and vulnerable conditions than men concerning areas like care, access to health, services, economic assets, security, and social protection systems, as well as a higher degree of disease and disability (Freixas, 2021; Gullette, 2017). In this discourse, old age is considered the stage in which gender and age inequalities are concentrated and experienced most starkly (Gonzálvez Torralbo & Lube Guizardi, 2020; Navarro & Danel, 2019). This assumption contributes to the reproduction of stereotypical and normative images of women’s aging such that a discourse of the “old woman” as the loving, passive, patient, submissive, and tolerant grandmother who does not represent a threat to the system (Freixas, 2021; Gullette, 2010) coexists with another discourse that characterizes older women as fragile, dependent, and weak with wide-ranging problems and needs (Freixas, 2021; Gonzálvez Torralbo & Lube Guizardi, 2020).…”

“…In the face of these hegemonic narratives, the resources and skills that older women have deployed throughout their lives and with which they confront old age and social exclusion are often made invisible (Freixas, 1998; Gonzálvez Torralbo & Lube Guizardi, 2020). Feminist gerontology contributes to more complete and complex interpretations of women’s lives, investigating their life trajectories and the effects that sexual differences and patterns of domination have had and continue to have on their life experiences (Freixas, 2008).…”

“…In this scenario, the demands of the older population have begun to be integrated into the public agenda; however, the problems and specific needs that affect older women continue to be unaddressed. Older women are conceived only as passive beneficiaries of public policies (Gonzálvez Torralbo & Lube Guizardi, 2020) leading to the perpetuation of the marginalization of this group in scientific, public, and cultural debates (Freixas, 2021).…”

“…Her theory of justice proposes as inseparable both a paradigm of redistribution, which responds to the demand for equality in the distribution of resources and wealth, and a paradigm of recognition of differences (i.e., cultural change to revalue identity struggles). In the case of older women who have been configured as a “subaltern subject for social thought (Gonzálvez Torralbo & Lube Guizardi, 2020, p. 6) and who have been invisible in Western thought and have been dismissed as political subjects, this conception of justice helps resignify traditional notions of the modern Western hegemonic subject and propose a substantial shift toward their emancipation and recognition as a collective (Segato, 2016).…”

E tudo a viuvez levou ? O impacto da morte do cônjuge no papel das mulheres nas famílias

“…Este artigo foca-se apenas nos resultados dessa investigação sobre o impacto da viuvez no papel das mulheres nas famílias.2 Na análise sociológica, tanto a velhice como a viuvez continuam a estar deficitariamente representadas. De uma forma geral, a sociologia da família, e até os estudos feministas, não se dedicam às mulheres mais velhas (Gibson, 1996 ;Torralbo & Guizardi, 2020). Este vazio é ainda maior no conhecimento produzido sobre mulheres idosas viúvas.…”