tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/older-women-14821/articlesOlder women – The Conversation2023-02-27T03:23:42Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1995002023-02-27T03:23:42Z2023-02-27T03:23:42ZOlder women are doing remarkable things – it’s time for putdowns to end<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511566/original/file-20230222-24-7ndkjm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C17%2C3982%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>It’s not easy to claim being an old woman. To start with, how can I be 75 when I feel about 40? And isn’t it shameful to be old when youth is valued? People proudly parrot statements such as, “I’m growing older but not getting old” (meaning, “How terrible to be old!”). I even heard that line quoted approvingly by one of the middle-aged hosts of the recent Australia Day Award ceremony.</p>
<p>Then there are shop assistants who serve an old person by asking, “What can I do for you, young lady/man?” (i.e. “I see that you’re old and will mock it by calling you young”). When author Jane Caro <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/this-throwaway-joke-at-the-bakery-was-just-another-example-of-ageism-20230130-p5cgjt.html">wrote about her husband’s angry response to this example of ageism</a> it created quite a Twitter storm. Can’t you take a joke? But, <a href="https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/tv-commentator-jane-caro-roasted-after-saying-her-husband-suffered-ageism-when-he-was-called-young-man/news-story/98c39b5978498fbb2139268307c75ccf">as Caro replied</a>, “Benign ageism, hostile ageism. One often turns into the other and both make the recipients feel diminished”. </p>
<p>Benign ageism applies as much to the stereotyping of young people (wasting their money on smashed avocado), as it does to the old.</p>
<p>Ageism is bad enough, but it’s often compounded by sexism. It is humiliating for a boy to be told he’s playing like a girl but even worse for a man expressing doubts or concerns to be called an old woman. The stereotype of the old woman is anxious, dependent, useless, and a burden – if she isn’t a nasty, bitter old witch. Dismissing old women in this way renders them invisible because they are considered of no use to society. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/men-and-young-people-more-likely-to-be-ageist-study-93057">Men and young people more likely to be ageist: study</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Women experience a sense of invisibility from late middle age: being overlooked in shops, ignored in restaurants. People walk into me in the street as though I’m incorporeal. Of course, it can be liberating to be ignored, not to be constantly assessed for one’s looks as young women are, and I try to make as much lemonade as possible from life’s lemons. Nevertheless, I’d prefer not to be completely disregarded.</p>
<p>When Jane Fisher and I i<a href="https://research.monash.edu/en/publications/promoting-older-womens-mental-health-insights-from-baby-boomers">nterviewed Baby Boom women</a> (born 1946 to 1964), we found that they wanted to be treated with respect, which doesn’t seem like much to ask. They said that respect includes requiring we all challenge – and refuse to perpetuate – these harmful stereotypes.</p>
<p>Ageist stereotypes reinforce age-based discrimination. An Australian <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28795587/">survey of more than 2000 people</a> aged over 60 found experiences of ageism have an adverse effect on mental health, prompting depression and anxiety.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508800/original/file-20230208-15-31aufw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Maggie Kirkman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Karma Clarke</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Challenging stereotypes</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/time-of-our-lives/">recent interviews</a> with women from the previous generation, dolefully named the Silent Generation (born before 1946), challenge these stereotypes. In their late seventies, eighties, and nineties, these women are leading fulfilling lives; contributing to their communities and to the wider society. </p>
<p>There is Mig Dann, whose PhD was conferred in her early eighties. Her thesis explored memory and trauma through art theory and practice. Exhibitions of her work <a href="https://migdann.com/">are breathtaking</a>.</p>
<p>Olive Trevor OAM developed her love of plants as her five children grew up and, in her eighties, was recognised as a world expert in bromeliads.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511073/original/file-20230220-271-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eudcational coach Lester Jones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Family collection.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lester Jones runs an educational coaching business, specialising in people with learning difficulties. She is in her nineties.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508798/original/file-20230208-27-84k83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508798/original/file-20230208-27-84k83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508798/original/file-20230208-27-84k83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508798/original/file-20230208-27-84k83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508798/original/file-20230208-27-84k83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508798/original/file-20230208-27-84k83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508798/original/file-20230208-27-84k83n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jacqueline Dwyer at graduation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dominic Dwyer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jacqueline Dwyer was ANU’s oldest successful postgraduate student when she became a Master of Arts at 90; <a href="https://scholarly.info/book/flanders-in-australia-a-personal-history-of-wool-and-war/">a book about her research</a> was published when she was 92.</p>
<p>After a difficult young adulthood as an itinerant worker, Raylee George found her vocation in typesetting. When she was made redundant, an employer who values older people took George on in her seventies as a specialist call-centre operator. </p>
<p>As she approaches 80, environmental scientist and climate campaigner Dr Sharron Pfueller continues to set an example of how we should all be living sustainably. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508801/original/file-20230208-16-3xtadg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Robina Rogan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After working as a TV make-up artist and in managerial roles, as well as doing voluntary work, Robina Rogan at 76 joined a team that built a boat and rowed it around Port Phillip Bay. In her eighties, she’s still rowing.</p>
<p>Dr Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann AM was Senior Australian of the Year in 2021; her life is committed to supporting Indigenous youth and to maintaining bridges that unite Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures and people. These are just a few examples.</p>
<p>It was Ungunmerr Baumann who led me to ponder the contrast between the way in which so many of us (appropriately) pay our respects to First Nations Elders past and present while disrespecting old people in general. As she says to audiences of people in late adulthood, “You are all Elders”.</p>
<p>The life stories of these women reveal they endured hardship and grief while displaying resilience and determination. But personal qualities can’t fully account for lives that continue to have meaning. It isn’t enough to tell women to exercise, eat more vegetables, do lots of puzzles, and volunteer at the local op shop. We live in communities and societies in which we are all interdependent. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508797/original/file-20230208-19-31aufw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miriam Rose Ungunmerr Baumann: ‘you are all Elders’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eleesa Zlatic</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Baby Boom women demonstrated that their whole life course influenced their experience of ageing, including their mental health. Were they adequately parented? Disadvantaged? Victims of violence? Well nourished in body and mind? Did they have good health? And, crucially, were there people, policies, and a culture that valued and supported them?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-love-in-the-time-of-incontinence-why-young-people-dont-have-the-monopoly-on-love-or-even-sex-198416">Friday essay: love in the time of incontinence – why young people don't have the monopoly on love, or even sex</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A social responsibility</h2>
<p>Women may have qualities that help them to live productive and satisfying lives, but they can achieve their potential only in a milieu that enables, rather than inhibits, them. </p>
<p>The milieu includes other people (family, friends, workmates, the community), the built environment and social policies. Ageing well is a social responsibility, to be shouldered by everyone – not only because it is the right thing to do but because we all stand to benefit.</p>
<p>Preparations for old age begin with care and support for parents and infants and even with preconception healthcare: anything that contributes to physical and mental health and to parents’ capacity to nurture children. It includes financial support, adequate housing, early identification and treatment of postnatal depression, good childcare and high-quality education for all. </p>
<p>Anti-discriminatory policies, informed and inclusive healthcare, and social structures that support and enhance the lives of girls and women – as well as boys and men – will benefit everyone, not only older women.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/giving-out-flowers-on-tiktok-is-this-a-random-act-of-kindness-or-just-benevolent-ageism-187064">Giving out flowers on TikTok: is this a 'random act of kindness' or just benevolent ageism?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The United Nations has declared the years 2021 to 2030 to be the Decade of Healthy Ageing: a time for worldwide collaboration to promote longer and healthier lives. Physical health is emphasised not as an end but as a necessary condition for full participation in society. This endeavour is part of a magnificent movement towards creating age-friendly neighbourhoods. The World Health Organization has taken the lead through its <a href="https://extranet.who.int/agefriendlyworld/age-friendly-cities-framework">age-friendly cities framework</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/511074/original/file-20230220-17-m0ny9a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sharron Pfueller: environmental scientist and climate campaigner.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided from family collection.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The eight areas in the framework are community and healthcare, transportation, housing, social participation, outdoor spaces and buildings, respect and social inclusion, and civic participation and employment. These areas are interconnected. They encompass the physical, psychological and social components of life, all of which are implicated in ageing. We need to develop and maintain a world in which everyone, of any age, feels welcome and is encouraged to participate.</p>
<p>Socially constructed ideas of ageing can similarly be socially dismantled.</p>
<p>I’m proud to be old, but my age is not what I want you to see first, especially when “old” means useless, past it, of no interest to anyone else. A woman of 25 might have firm flesh and a future full of possibilities, but she doesn’t have all the decades of life experience embodied by a wrinkly woman of 75. </p>
<p>I’d like people to be interested in old women’s stories, to be prepared to learn about their lives: not only their past, but what they’re doing now, what they plan to do in the time to come.</p>
<p>This isn’t a whinge. I enjoy getting old. I love birthdays and cake. But I would like old age to be valued. It seems perverse for those who are not yet old to condemn their own futures.</p>
<p><em>Maggie Kirkman’s book <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/time-of-our-lives/">Time of Our Lives: Celebrating Older Women</a> is out on 1 March.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199500/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maggie Kirkman has received funding from Liptember and an anonymous philanthropist to conduct research on ageing. </span></em></p>The stereotype of the old woman is anxious, dependent, useless, and a burden. But my interviews with older women found them contributing to society in myriad ways.Maggie Kirkman, Senior Research Fellow, Global and Women's Health, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1982102023-02-02T13:34:45Z2023-02-02T13:34:45ZCOVID heroes left behind: the ‘invisible’ women struggling to make ends meet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506196/original/file-20230124-26-s0p9pj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=239%2C163%2C6011%2C2397&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/abstract-portrait-red-hair-woman-fashion-2176106403">Iryna Shek/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kesrewan* holds herself upright and speaks confidently, even though English is her second language. But she admits that her “heart is beating faster”. Talking to us is reminding her of her most recent failed job interview – one of many since she arrived from the Middle East seeking asylum more than 20 years ago.</p>
<p>Kesrewan, now in her 50s, is a pragmatic woman but she grows emotional telling her story. She wishes she knew why her latest interview for a staff job at the information service where she already volunteers has again been unsuccessful. She would like some feedback on what she did wrong, or how to improve.</p>
<p>Aged 30, Kesrewan arrived from the Middle East as a highly qualified woman with experience as a newspaper editor and librarian. Yet despite her best efforts – taking multiple classes, working voluntarily to maintain her skills, helping out in community organisations – she has always struggled to translate this into meaningful work in the UK.</p>
<p>Given her limited language skills and with children to support, once she gained legal status she initially took on any work she could find, such as cleaning and kitchen jobs. She thinks her employers often preferred that she had no English because she could not complain about the conditions. She says she was “too ashamed” to tell family and friends in the UK and back home about her cleaning work.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This article is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> derived from interdisciplinary research. The team is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects aimed at tackling societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Kesrewan’s story is indicative of most of the 100 women aged 50 and over that we have interviewed for the <a href="https://uncertainfuturesproject.co.uk/">Uncertain Futures project</a>. All live in Greater Manchester, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027795361930067X">often precariously</a>. Not all are permitted to work in the UK, but those who do typically struggle to find secure, full-time employment. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64441775">New research</a> by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has found that UK firms and public services are much less open to hiring older workers than their younger peers. Its survey of more than 1,000 managers found that just 42% were “to a large extent” open to hiring people aged between 50 and 64, compared with 74% for those aged 18-34 and 64% for 35 to 49-year-olds.</p>
<p>Our interviewees typically work in kitchens, warehouses, or as cleaners maintaining the environments of offices, schools and high-street stores. Others work in badly paid or voluntary care roles, supporting older people and those with disabilities. Most who do get paid are on zero-hour contracts. Many describe having experienced abuse and discrimination.</p>
<p>Kesrewan now seems resigned to her “life in the shadows” – struggling even to secure the kinds of job that the <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/press/brexit-exacerbated-labour-shortages-in-the-uk-but-is-not-the-only-cause/">UK desperately needs to fill</a> but which offer little reward and poor conditions. Women like her are largely unseen and their voices usually go unheard – whether because of their lack of English, their employers’ failure to recognise their experiences and skills, or the blind eye that the authorities and general public often seem to turn to them.</p>
<p>“I haven’t done enough jobs – I didn’t have the chance,” she reflects sadly. “Really that’s confusing for me. It wasn’t like me to sit at home and not want to get a job.”</p>
<h2>A ‘watershed moment’</h2>
<p>The COVID pandemic was briefly imagined to be a watershed moment for “invisible workers” in the UK and elsewhere. Jobs that had traditionally been undervalued were now understood to be “essential”. The importance of keeping workspaces clean and germ-free was suddenly appreciated. Carers, nurses, bus drivers and many more put themselves at enormous personal risk to keep people safe and society functioning. Volunteers stepped in to help the vulnerable when statutory support all but collapsed. <a href="https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1745057/low-paid-and-frontline-workers-most-at-risk-of-covid-related-death">Many people died</a> because of the work, paid or unpaid, that they continued to perform.</p>
<p>Löis, who works full-time while also caring for her mother who has dementia, describes the countless attributes required of carers like her:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You have to be kind, patient. You have to be a good planner. You have to be able to pick up the unexpected, mentally, physically. You have to coordinate the services that may or may not help you.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But Löis struggles with the idea that none of this is recognised as a skill, or as experience which is valued by society. When she asks herself what all of this is worth, she replies quietly: “I’m not sure.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three illlustrations of the same woman, from invisible to visible" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=225&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505604/original/file-20230120-4431-8l42sq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/woman-face-side-silhouettes-people-three-2056030445">Hub Design/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Kesrewan too, it is a source of pain to feel so invisible. While she has helped younger, more inexperienced volunteers to secure paid roles, she feels her age is now an additional factor hindering her own ability to get a job. She has applied five times for a paid role in the information service where she has volunteered for seven years, but has always failed at the interview on the grounds that she does not have “sufficient experience”. She feels sad that discrimination based on age – “coupled with your skin colour, your background, your nationality” – is still so prevalent in recruitment practices.</p>
<p>The cruel irony is that there are now <a href="https://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/articles/three-quarters-of-uk-companies-hit-by-labour-shortages-in-last-12-months-cbipertemps/">severe labour shortages</a> across the UK’s care, health and social work sectors, and in some administration and office support activities. Non-British migrant workers are <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-labour-market-an-overview/">over-represented in these sectors</a> but, despite the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64441775">pressing need to fill these roles</a>, they are often non-permanent jobs offering only zero-hour contracts.</p>
<p>The women we meet are keen to work hard in fulfilling roles that support themselves and their families. Some have little understanding or knowledge about retirement and pensions, and many express deep concern about whether they will ever earn enough money to retire. Gemma, 59, says she can see herself “cleaning toilets till I’m 85”, adding:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’re always scrabbling to pay rent in the private sector – it’s very expensive and precarious. I think I could live on the living allowance [state pension], but I might be living in a treetop in a park to do it.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=115%2C23%2C3727%2C1967&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of an older woman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=115%2C23%2C3727%2C1967&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505602/original/file-20230120-20-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/black-lives-matter-concept-equality-different-1907211748">Amverlly/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Degrading work</h2>
<p>Many of the women we meet are extremely well qualified, but that hasn’t stopped them experiencing degrading working situations. Azade is 60 and her story is fairly typical.</p>
<p>Qualified with a degree in agriculture from a university in the Middle East and with many years’ experience in gardening and managing farms, Azade arrived in the UK 24 years ago with two little girls – one of whom had been born en route. “Very long travel,” she recalls. “I have my baby on my way as it was a really awkward time.”</p>
<p>Needing to support herself and her children, Azade was only able to work after securing her refugee status, which took two years. She initially sought out work as a tailor but describes the conditions as “slave work – for a very, very small amount of money. But still I had to do it because I am a single mum with two children.”</p>
<p>She went on to study accountancy but has not been able to secure any work as a qualified accountant. Instead she works as an agency interpreter, but describes the unfair power dynamics within this work:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you are late by five minutes, they charge you £25 – [yet] they pay me only £14 for one hour … If you are late by ten minutes, this would be classified as “did not attend” and they charge you £100.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Equally, if a client cancels a video call at the last minute, Azade does not get paid. This is essential work, assisting people to communicate with state and semi-state agencies about their legal situations and health matters. Yet there is little value or respect attributed to the role, as a result of the unstable nature of the agency’s relationship with its employees.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/svnTPLZCGL8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video made as part of the Uncertain Futures project.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Other women describe outright discrimination and racism as a regular part of their work. Much of it goes unreported, let alone addressed.</p>
<p>Murkurata trained as a nurse after arriving from Africa in 2001, where she had worked for more than 20 years as a civil servant. She had expected to continue in a similar line of work here, but says when she arrived here she was “shocked … I got no response. Nothing. Nothing. I don’t think anybody looked at my papers. So I went to nursing and loved it, because I was touched by the people I cared for.”</p>
<p>At the same time, however, Murkurata speaks candidly about being undermined in her role by other nursing staff, including those of a lower rank:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I was the nurse in charge. But the carers, because they are white, they want to tell me what to do with my patients … If I tell them what to do, [another nurse] might tell me that she has been there for years and she knows better. They really, really undermine your intelligence and understanding, you know.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She also recalls a number of occasions when her patient would ask for a “proper nurse” on seeing that she was black. The managerial support given to her in such circumstances would vary, she says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some managers were very good, but others would just let this happen. So sometimes you just end up not saying it because it’s pointless. Even if you tell them that’s what they a patient is saying, somebody will always say: “It’s nothing, just brush it off … it’s nothing to talk about.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Murkurata – who is now training to be a church minister – wearily complains that this effectively put the blame on her for such behaviour by patients:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m giving this person care and I’m the one who is at the receiving end. I don’t deserve that kind of treatment, because I’m trying my best and just a human being, just like anybody else … But whatever goes wrong, they find a black person to blame for it. When we are in the same ward working, if you leave a catheter not emptied because you are white, it’s OK. But if it’s [a black nurse] who leaves it unemptied, everybody in the ward should know it.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women gathered together in an art gallery" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505592/original/file-20230120-22-otgus6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All 100 women interviewed for the Uncertain Futures project at Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Feelings of uselessness</h2>
<p>A November 2022 report by the <a href="https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/anxiety-nation-economic-insecurity-and-mental-distress-2020s-britain">Joseph Rowntree Foundation</a> highlighted the increasing numbers of UK adults who are struggling both financially and with mental health problems. Many of the women we meet fit this demographic: limited financial security for housing and necessities, reduced standard of living, and poor health and wellbeing (which itself can exacerbate poverty).</p>
<p>Just under two-thirds of the women we have interviewed are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds. All are heavily <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/migrants-in-the-uk-labour-market-an-overview/">over-represented</a> in shift work and non-permanent jobs in the UK. A quarter of UK adults in “deep poverty” are <a href="https://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/falling-faster-amidst-a-cost-of-living-crisis-poverty-inequality-and-ethnicity-in-the-uk">from minority ethnic populations</a>.</p>
<p>Their lack of financial security may stem from unemployment, poor and precarious working conditions, or a lack of financial provision in retirement. The cost of living crisis – which <a href="https://www.centreforcities.org/blog/northern-cities-hit-harder-by-cost-of-living-crisis/">research shows</a> is being felt harder by people living in the north of England compared with much of the south – is increasing the pressure on them to work for longer (both each day and before retiring), even in very difficult conditions.</p>
<p>Mari, who was in the UK asylum system for five years, describes the feelings of uselessness associated with the inability to secure paid employment – and how this feeling was made worse by the pandemic. Her voice softens and quietens as she echoes: “Long time to stay home, stay home, stay home.”</p>
<p>She fled to the UK from the Middle East without her children because she was facing “great danger” as a newly divorced woman. She had previously worked for more than 20 years in banking, and although she arrived speaking very limited English, was optimistic about the many transferable skills that she could use here.</p>
<p>The reality, she says, has been very different. Throughout her interview she remains stoical as she describes obstacle after obstacle: being refused English lessons after her initial asylum application was declined; spending time in a detention centre and facing potential deportation; “shaking” every time she came into contact with the police; becoming ill and temporarily losing her eyesight to a thyroid disease while waiting so long for her asylum application to be processed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Display from the Uncertain Futures exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505612/original/file-20230120-7807-sxmcy9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Display from the Uncertain Futures exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mari, who is now in her 60s, has worked hard to overcome all these challenges. She has picked up “street English’” through speaking with friends. Her eyesight recovered and she was granted leave to remain in the UK, but the stress of the limbo she was living in remains with her. Having previously always worked in a respected professional role, she says this period has altered her life completely:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Those five years were very difficult, because they don’t allow any work, just voluntary – no college, no job, no anything. When you can’t go to any job, the first thing is you think you are not useful, you are not able to do anything. This feeling is very bad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At one point during her interview, however, Mari becomes quite emotional as she speaks about the voluntary organisation which supported her during this difficult time:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sorry… My life … All my life, it’s thanks to them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She is talking about one of the 90-odd organisations throughout the UK that provide essential support for asylum seekers and refugees. Mari attributes much of her current, more stable situation to this organisation.</p>
<p>With its help, she has managed to take up voluntary roles which make her “feel good” and give her “hope”. She works as a cook for a local charity as well as helping to care for her grandson and older neighbour, who is 97. But she wants to earn her own money and gain the independence that would come from this. She says she will do anything – for example, “packing at home for retail companies, packing clothes.”</p>
<p>But it is not only community organisations that can have a major impact on the lives of undervalued women such as these. Enlightened employers have an important role to play too – one which could also pay dividends for their companies.</p>
<h2>A better future?</h2>
<p>FemmeCapable, 54, embodies the tenacity we see in so many of our interviewees. Struggling with her English and experiencing prejudice in her role as a care assistant – “I faced discrimination a lot” – she retrained herself using every community resource she could find, then established a mobile food business selling barbecued African cuisine. At the same time, she set up a charity supporting women from ethnic backgrounds in her community.</p>
<p>Even when COVID shut down her business, FemmeCapable used her entrepreneurial skills to transform it into a mobile food response team, part-funded by her local council, which provided culturally appropriate food and transport to families in her local area. She was effectively a frontline worker during the pandemic, even though her work was not perceived in this way.</p>
<p>Her enthusiasm, intelligence and drive permeate the interview. She oozes energy to create something and “make it real life”, and to “share it with the public or the world” so it can have lasting value. Yet her nursing contributions have been overshadowed by racist attitudes, and her work in the community has largely gone unrecognised.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Uncertain Futures posters outside the Manchester Art Gallery." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505613/original/file-20230120-26-egupay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uncertain Futures posters outside the Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>FemmeCapable credits her local <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_for_Voluntary_Service">Council for Voluntary Service</a> for providing all-important support in setting up her business and community organisation, including applying for funding. These services work closely with local councils to help people use their skills and have their contributions recognised – a vital first step in ensuring a better future for older women like FemmeCapable.</p>
<p>However, announcements made in the UK government’s 2022 autumn statement now threaten the <a href="https://www.ncvo.org.uk/news-and-insights/news-index/autumn-statement-budget-2022/#/">existence of these voluntary services</a>. According to the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[They] are on the verge of buckling under the compounding pressures of increased demand, skyrocketing operational costs, eroding income, and challenges recruiting staff and volunteers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such pressures are exacerbated by increased energy costs and cuts to public services. In a combined response, the Institute for Government and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/autumn-statement-2022-public-services.pdf">noted</a> that public services “not protected in the autumn statement now face day-to-day spending cuts of 1.2% per year on average over the next two years”.</p>
<h2>A lightbulb moment</h2>
<p>Victoria, 63, migrated to the UK from Africa more than 22 years ago. As her story unfolds during the interview, it shares the trajectory of so many of the other older migrant women we have met: a professional woman spending many years in immigration limbo while volunteering in community organisations to maintain her skills.</p>
<p>She originally came to the UK on a six-month tourist visa, then fell ill with cancer and had to stay for treatment. She applied for an extension to her visa on medical grounds, but the process took over six years to resolve.</p>
<p>Victoria has since attempted to get jobs in banking and finance in the UK, as this is her employment background, but has struggled, she suspects, due to her age and skin colour. She has concerns about retirement due to her fragmented working life, much of which has consisted of zero-hours employment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have not worked in this country for long enough. Although I have contributed to a pension, I don’t know if that’s going to be enough to retire on.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, her story takes a positive turn when she describes a “lightbulb moment” – when she was at last offered a staff job after years of temporary agency work by an employer who is, in her eyes, “different”. She says this employer treats her “like a person”.</p>
<p>Victoria now works full-time as a homeless support officer for a Manchester housing charity. She says, with evident pride, that her employer “wants a workplace that is equal for everyone”, offering personal development programmes and wellbeing support for staff.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was such a relief to be acknowledged and have someone appreciating you – I must add that this is a white employer and the majority of the workers are white. You can count people of my colour on one hand out of about 500 … But they have given me an opportunity and, from what I have experienced right from the interview itself, they don’t treat me like I am different. You are just a person in a workplace – that’s how I feel, that’s how they place me.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Art gallery exhibition room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505600/original/file-20230120-18-mknteq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uncertain Futures exhibition room, Manchester Art Gallery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andrew Brooks</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the <a href="https://ageing-better.org.uk/sites/default/files/2018-09/Becoming-age-friendly-employer.pdf">Centre for Ageing Better</a>, there are a multitude of advantages to hiring and retaining older workers – not least, benefiting from their skills, strong work ethic, and experience. They tend to retain business knowledge and networks and, by better matching the profile of customers, can improve services. There are also <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/b0e8405c-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/b0e8405c-en">established benefits</a> to multigenerational teams, both in terms of productivity and in passing on valuable experience to younger colleagues.</p>
<p>Hearing Victoria’s story is a moment for reflection. She shows us there are ways to break the cycle of invisibility; to help these older women’s voices to be heard and their expertise to be valued. But it requires continued financial support for community organisations, and enlightened employers who recognise the skills and experience of older women.</p>
<p>There is encouraging news from Kesrewan, too. After all those rejection letters from the information service, she has just been offered a part-time job as a welfare adviser and outreach worker at a local charity she volunteered with during the pandemic. She can only work ten hours a week, or she may end up financially worse off due to the strict rules of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/eligibility">Universal Credit</a> – but still expresses joy that at last her skills are being recognised.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This work for me – it’s life, wellbeing, being fit and active. You see that you have something to offer. You see that they value you. It’s not just because you are working and they pay you. It’s what you can do for the community and others.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Kesrewan, Victoria and, hopefully, more of the women we have met, the veil of invisibility may finally be lifting.</p>
<p><em>All names have been changed to protect the interviewees’ anonymity. They were invited to choose their own pseudonyms.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/loneliness-loss-and-regret-what-getting-old-really-feels-like-new-study-157731?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Loneliness, loss and regret: what getting old really feels like – new study</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/its-like-being-in-a-warzone-aande-nurses-open-up-about-the-emotional-cost-of-working-on-the-nhs-frontline-194197?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">‘It’s like being in a warzone’ – A&E nurses open up about the emotional cost of working on the NHS frontline</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-photograph-uncovered-my-grandmothers-republican-activism-during-the-irish-revolution-189326?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">How a photograph uncovered my grandmother’s republican activism during the Irish revolution</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
<p><em>To hear about new Insights articles, join the hundreds of thousands of people who value The Conversation’s evidence-based news. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-2?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK"><strong>Subscribe to our newsletter</strong></a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198210/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project has been partly funded by the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, Manchester Art Gallery, and the ESRC Festival of Social Science. Both authors are members of the Labour party.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors would like to thank the Uncertain Futures Advisory Group: Akhter Azabany, Erinma Bell, Sally Casey, Atiha Chaudry, Rohina Ghafoor, Marie Greenhalgh, Teodora Ilieva, Tendayi Madzunzu, Jila Mozoun, Elayne Redford, Charity Rutagira, Nadia Siddiqui, Circle Steele, Patricia Williams and Louise Wong.
Thanks also to Suzanne Lacy, who led the participatory art and research project, Ruth Edson at Manchester Art Gallery, and research assistants Tanya Elahi, Lila Nicholson, Amanda Wang, Jess Wild and Robyn Dowlen. And to the 100 women who participated in the research and shared their stories.</span></em></p>Britain is now desperately short of workers in some sectors. Yet our interviews with 100 women aged 50 and over show how hard it is for them to find secure employmentElaine Dewhurst, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of ManchesterSarah Campbell, Senior Lecturer, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1883562022-08-19T02:08:57Z2022-08-19T02:08:57Z‘We’ve all done the right things’: in Under Cover, older women tell their stories of becoming homeless<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479786/original/file-20220818-18-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C0%2C803%2C527&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.undercoverdocumentary.com/">Under Cover/SA Films</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Australian documentary Under Cover, premiering at the <a href="https://miff.com.au/program/film/under-cover">Melbourne International Film Festival</a>, presents the voices and faces of older women’s housing insecurity. Many of us would have seen the figures: the number of homeless people aged 55 years or above <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/census-population-and-housing-estimating-homelessness/latest-release">increased</a> 28% between 2011 and 2016. And single women of that age are the <a href="https://www.oldertenants.org.au/content/women-over-55-are-australias-fastest-growing-group-homeless">fastest-growing</a> homeless group in Australia. </p>
<p>But knowing the statistics is different from witnessing the reality. In Under Cover, filmmaker Sue Thomson depicts the stories of ten older women who have experienced housing insecurity and homelessness. They live in hostels, community housing, their cars, vans, caravan parks. </p>
<p>All have travelled different routes, but leading to each individual experience is a chain of similar factors: taking time off work to care for children, having little or no superannuation, experiencing relationship breakdown that leaves them without money or assets, eviction. For some, additional factors include family violence and the enduring impacts of colonisation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-left-with-the-kids-and-ended-up-homeless-with-them-the-nightmare-of-housing-wait-lists-for-people-fleeing-domestic-violence-187687">'I left with the kids and ended up homeless with them': the nightmare of housing wait lists for people fleeing domestic violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>These women filled the role in society that women are expected to, caring for husbands, elderly parents and children. As one of them points out:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’ve all done the right things, you know. We got married, we stayed at home, we’ve raised our children. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>They feel shock, grief and frustration that, in return for their service, they have ended up here, beyond the edge of poverty. For many, the routine acts of waking and washing, food preparation, seeking an income, maintaining precious belongings, sleeping and staying safe take place in spaces of transience and mobility.</p>
<p>Many of the women say they never thought they would end up homeless; it was something that happened to other people. They are articulate, reflective, everyday women who were blindsided. As one of them says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had never ever considered that I would be homeless. Never.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, in advocating for political change, the film powerfully presents the idea that homelessness can happen to anyone.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Bq0SJbia8g4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Margot Robbie–narrated documentary Under Cover gives voice to older women who are facing homelessness.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Risks are rising with rental and living costs</h2>
<p>The pressures that lead to people becoming homeless are increasing. Rental and living costs are soaring.</p>
<p>Anglicare’s <a href="https://www.anglicare.asn.au/publications/rental-affordability-snapshot-2022/">Rental Affordability Snapshot</a> shows rents are more unaffordable than ever before, especially for people on low incomes. Nationally, only 0.7% of listed private rental homes were affordable for a single adult on the aged pension. Only 1.4% were affordable for couples on the aged pension. </p>
<p>An Australian property market geared to make profits, rather than provide housing as a basic human right, is having stark long-term impacts. When the next Census <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/housing/census-population-and-housing-estimating-homelessness">homelessness estimates</a> are released in 2023, it’s likely we will see more older women are at risk of homelessness – and more Australians across all age groups and genders with first-hand experience of not having a home.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Older women looking pensive" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479790/original/file-20220818-15-g8grbj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479790/original/file-20220818-15-g8grbj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479790/original/file-20220818-15-g8grbj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479790/original/file-20220818-15-g8grbj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479790/original/file-20220818-15-g8grbj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479790/original/file-20220818-15-g8grbj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479790/original/file-20220818-15-g8grbj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many of the women in Under Cover never thought they would end up being homeless.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.undercoverdocumentary.com/">Under Cover/SA Films</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-affordable-housing-with-less-homelessness-is-possible-if-only-australia-would-learn-from-nordic-nations-182049">More affordable housing with less homelessness is possible – if only Australia would learn from Nordic nations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Solutions must include more affordable housing</h2>
<p>The film highlights some important <a href="https://housingallaustralians.org.au/about-us/">programs</a> and <a href="https://www.womenscommunityshelters.org.au/">organisations</a> that are helping homeless women. But, as Margot Robbie’s narration makes clear, non-government organisations cannot do the work without government support. </p>
<p>Currently available social or affordable housing may be located far from women’s social networks and community. They may be given a stable home but at the cost of their sense of belonging. </p>
<p>Significantly more social and affordable housing is needed. This will ensure people have suitable options and don’t have to move long distances to receive shelter. Temporary housing is also necessary but insufficient. </p>
<p>Recent research also <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/378">assesses</a> innovative housing models for older people. Suggested solutions include <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-affordable-housing-with-less-homelessness-is-possible-if-only-australia-would-learn-from-nordic-nations-182049">co-operative living</a> and shared-equity schemes. These are consistent with the <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/317">reported aspirations</a> of older Australians who require safe, secure housing to age well. Options include <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/325">downsizing</a> or “rightsizing” in later life. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sort-of-housing-do-older-australians-want-and-where-do-they-want-to-live-120987">What sort of housing do older Australians want and where do they want to live?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Having stable, alternative housing available will help older people who cannot stay in the family home, whether because their relationship breaks down or they never owned property. </p>
<p>More broadly, Australian housing policy needs to understand housing as a human right that is fundamental to people’s wellbeing. Housing should be safeguarded as <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-social-housing-essential-infrastructure-how-we-think-about-it-does-matter-110777">essential social infrastructure</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Older woman cuddles a cat" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479791/original/file-20220818-24-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479791/original/file-20220818-24-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479791/original/file-20220818-24-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479791/original/file-20220818-24-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479791/original/file-20220818-24-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479791/original/file-20220818-24-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479791/original/file-20220818-24-35m58w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Housing needs to be recognised as a human right that is fundamental to people’s wellbeing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.undercoverdocumentary.com/">Under Cover/SA Films</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-social-housing-essential-infrastructure-how-we-think-about-it-does-matter-110777">Is social housing essential infrastructure? How we think about it does matter</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Broader social policy changes are essential too</h2>
<p>Other measures to prevent older women from becoming homeless will require policy beyond housing: better parental leave schemes, pay equality, domestic violence responses, closing the superannuation gender gap. In short, it depends on overcoming gender inequality on all levels and scales. These are big tasks, but they must be undertaken for a fair and just society. </p>
<p>Under Cover makes it clear we cannot continue the way we are, or these problems will continue through to the next generations. Today’s young women will be tomorrow’s older homeless women, wondering how on Earth they ended up here. As one woman in the film says: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I couldn’t believe this was me. I couldn’t believe after all these years that I would be in this situation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The need for both <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research-in-progress/Gendered-housing-opportunities-pathways-assistance-and-impacts">gender-focused</a> and <a href="https://www.oldertenants.org.au/publications">age-focused</a> housing solutions is urgent.</p>
<p>People experiencing homelessness are often regarded as invisible, as are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/30/women-and-ageing-ive-developed-the-courage-to-live-my-own-truth-picture-essay">older</a> <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/any-woman-above-a-certain-age-can-tell-you-what-it-s-like-to-become-invisible-20201008-p5638g.html">women</a>. Homeless older women may be doubly invisible. But by getting into the specifics of their homelessness, Under Cover brings their experiences into the light. </p>
<p>You can’t make policy about something you can’t (or don’t want to) see. With the federal government’s commitment to national <a href="https://twitter.com/JulieCollinsMP/status/1547811749516443648">co-ordinated housing policy</a>, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s open discussion of being raised by a single mother in public housing, perhaps there is a fairer Australian housing landscape on the horizon. </p>
<p>A sequel to Under Cover that focuses on “how older women’s housing insecurity and homelessness was solved” would be welcome. In the meantime, government action, supported by research that increases understanding of age, gender and other intertwined vulnerabilities, is badly needed. Also critical are the conversations at kitchen tables, in local neighbourhoods, in workplaces, among friends and in news media that Under Cover will provoke.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://miff.com.au/program/film/under-cover">Under Cover</a> is screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival until August 20 and is streaming at <a href="https://play.miff.com.au/film/under-cover/">MIFF Play</a> until August 28.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188356/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zoe Goodall has received funding from the Victorian Government and the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and receives an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret Reynolds receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Piret Veeroja receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG), Kids Under Cover (KUC) and has previously received funding from Victorian Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Stone receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Housing for the Aged Action Group (HAAG), Kids Under Cover (KUC) and has previously received research funding from the Victorian Government. </span></em></p>A new Australian documentary gives voice to the women in urgent need of policy action on housing insecurity and homelessness.Zoe Goodall, Research Associate, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of TechnologyMargaret Reynolds, Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of TechnologyPiret Veeroja, Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of TechnologyWendy Stone, Professor of Housing & Social Policy, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1831292022-05-24T20:04:40Z2022-05-24T20:04:40Z‘I want an orgasm but not just any orgasm’: How To Please A Woman shifts the way we depict the sexuality of older women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464897/original/file-20220524-14810-6r0yfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C4785%2C3168&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian writer and director Renée Webster’s new film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10530838/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">How to Please a Woman</a> turns much of what we think we know about sexual desire – especially for older women – on its head.</p>
<p>How to Please a Woman features 50-something Gina (Sally Phillips), who hasn’t had sex with her husband (Cameron Daddo) in over a year because he is no longer interested in sexual relations – with her or anyone.</p>
<p>Gina’s main source of intimacy comes from the regular beach swims she has with a group of three women (Tasma Walton, Caroline Brazier, and Hayley McElhinney) and their changing-room conversations that cover everything from peeing on jellyfish stings to the multipurpose use of coconut oil, including as a natural lubricant.</p>
<p>When Gina’s friends rent a stripper (Alexander England) to dance for her on her birthday (a much more intimate present than the two $50 bills she receives from her husband), and he offers to do anything for her (“Anything?” “Totally …”) she asks him to clean her house.</p>
<p>Realising the pleasure she experienced having her house cleaned by a shirtless, handsome man, Gina starts her own male cleaning business and her swimming crew become her first clients. </p>
<p>But they want more than their houses cleaned. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5ZLv4v4odkE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>The sexual desire of women over 50</h2>
<p>One of the strengths of this film is the sensitive way it represents the different desires of individual women. After all, the title of the film is How to Please <em>a</em>
Woman not <em>How to Please Women</em>.</p>
<p>For Gina to ensure her clients receive the pleasure they want, she meets individually with them and writes down their preferences. One woman wants to take it slow and start with gin and tonic. Another woman does not want her breasts touched. A third woman wants a very specific orgasm: she does not want just any orgasm that sneaks up on you, but one you ease up to and pull away from, ease up to and pull away from until total annihilation. Another client says that after several bookings with men she is starting to feel all kinds of things, so she wants to book a session with a woman.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464899/original/file-20220524-14-h6s8xw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hayley McElhinney, Tasma Walton, Sally Phillips and Caroline Brazier in How To Please A Woman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Madman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is rare to see in popular culture a range of mostly older women being frank about what gives them sexual pleasure and to see how their desire become more adventurous and diverse. Sadly, the sexual desire of women over 50 is often unrepresented, misrepresented, and/or shown as comedic. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grace-and-frankie-is-the-longest-running-series-on-netflix-and-a-show-for-women-who-dont-see-themselves-on-television-182298">Grace and Frankie is the longest running series on Netflix – and a show for women who don’t see themselves on television</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The socially transmitted disease of ageism</h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Sex_Matters_for_Women/BtX56c0CuMkC?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">Foley, Kope & Sugrue</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The greatest barrier to a woman’s sexuality in midlife is the socially transmitted disease of ageism. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Older women are represented as asexual and past it. They are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar_(slang)">“cougars”</a> or ageing <a href="https://ijlls.org/index.php/ijlls/article/view/784">femme fatales</a>, like Blanche Du Bois in Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire, who set a tone for generations as a figure of fun whose desires are twisted, ridiculed, and ultimately punished.</p>
<p>Older age is by far the largest developmental human period plagued by misconceptions and stereotypes, kept alive by incessant jokes.</p>
<p>And no gender absorbs these jokes more than the female. Sexiness is equated with youth, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/invisible-lives-where-are-all-the-older-women-in-film-and-tv-168012">older women and their sexuality are made invisible</a>. When older women are represented in popular media, their sexuality is <a href="https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/hollywoods-intentional-and-harmful-neglect-of-women-over-50/">often not shown</a> or is aligned with deviance, such as in the relationship between Darlene and Wyatt in Netflix’s highly-acclaimed Ozark.</p>
<p>Depictions in media trivialising desirous or sexually active older women, or women who seek sex outside of loving and steady relationships as abnormal, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24384365/">contribute to negative stereotypes</a> and to judgemental attitudes about older sexuality.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464901/original/file-20220524-16-bqkf5b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexander England and Sally Phillips.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>And just like that…</h2>
<p>Fortunately, we are starting to see the lives of women over 50 appear more positively in stories on television, recent examples including <a href="https://theconversation.com/frank-unapologetic-and-female-oriented-the-cultural-legacy-of-sex-and-the-city-and-the-lure-of-the-reboot-175061">And Just Like That</a> the reboot of Sex and the City, and the hugely popular Netflix comedy series <a href="https://theconversation.com/grace-and-frankie-is-the-longest-running-series-on-netflix-and-a-show-for-women-who-dont-see-themselves-on-television-182298">Grace and Frankie</a> – and in films like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1230414/">It’s Complicated</a> and Girl’s Trip.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/frank-unapologetic-and-female-oriented-the-cultural-legacy-of-sex-and-the-city-and-the-lure-of-the-reboot-175061">Frank, unapologetic, and female-oriented: the cultural legacy of Sex and the City, and the lure of the reboot</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The tone of these stories plays more for laughs, though, while How to Please a Woman balances between comedy and drama. <a href="https://www.theaureview.com/watch/interview-director-renee-webster-on-how-to-please-a-woman-and-finding-the-comedy-in-truth-and-pain/">As director Renée Webster says</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The best comedy comes from truth and a little bit of pain.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How to Please a Woman shows older women’s sexual desire as respectful and tender for both women and men, even though it is set within a comedy. </p>
<p>But the women aren’t being laughed at, they’re the ones laughing. This depiction seems new and significant. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02701260">Stories impact and inspire relationships</a> and images about ageing and sexuality influence individual behaviour. </p>
<p><a href="https://if.com.au/with-how-to-please-a-woman-renee-webster-puts-the-audience-first/?fbclid=IwAR1sPidra6uO64jjiSbyfbQ069LrZQ8ZBLYUXpX0tdL-7CjE63J1yAtuRks">Webster herself says</a> she is “starting to get unsolicited texts of my friends’ husbands vacuuming the carpet and hearing from people that they took something home from the movie, and it opened up some new conversations for them.”</p>
<p>Female sexuality is seen as part of a rich fabric of women’s lives, not its single orgasmic culmination. As Steve (Erik Thomson) says in the film while eating a croissant, “one is never enough.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183129/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Debra Dudek receives funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council's Discovery Projects funding scheme (project DP190102435). The views expressed herein are those of this author and are not necessarily those of the Australian Government or the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Reid Boyd and Madalena Grobbelaar do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Sadly, the sexual desire of women over 50 is often unrepresented, misrepresented, and shown as comedic in culture – the new Australian film depicts a different reality.Debra Dudek, Associate professor, School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan UniversityElizabeth Reid Boyd, Senior Lecturer School of Arts and Humanities, Edith Cowan UniversityMadalena Grobbelaar, Lecturer, Edith Cowan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1774522022-02-23T23:22:59Z2022-02-23T23:22:59ZOlder women often rent in poverty – shared home equity could help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447973/original/file-20220223-23-grk6q5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=298%2C7%2C2113%2C1347&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">SHVETS/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many older Australian women face insecure futures. Those who are single, divorced or widowed are much more likely to suffer poverty, housing stress and homelessness.</p>
<p>Our new Grattan Institute proposal for a <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/levelling-the-playing-field-its-time-for-a-national-shared-equity-scheme/">national shared equity scheme</a> could help many escape that fate. </p>
<p>Single women who rent rather than own their homes are at the greatest risk of poverty in retirement and are the <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/who-is-homeless-in-australia/">fastest growing group of homeless Australians</a>.</p>
<p>They are financially vulnerable because they are more likely to have worked in <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-work-hours/average-weekly-earnings-australia/latest-release">low-wage jobs</a>, are more likely to have worked <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia/latest-release">part-time</a> or <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-work-hours/working-arrangements/latest-release#casual-employment">casually</a>, and are more likely to have taken long breaks from paid employment to care for others.</p>
<p>In later life, women experience the full consequences of lower lifetime earnings, typically finding themselves with <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/899-Best-way-to-close-gender-gap-retirement-incomes.pdf">less super</a> than men and in many cases missing the opportunity to buy a house or losing the half share in a home they had.</p>
<p>Women who have separated by age 65 are <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2020-100554">three times</a> as likely as still married-women to rent, and they have <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2020-100554">two-thirds</a> the assets of separated men. </p>
<h2>Home ownership matters in retirement</h2>
<p>The home is typically a family’s biggest asset. When couples split, one or both partners often lack the equity to buy a new home.</p>
<p>Only 34% of the women who separate and lose their home manage to purchase another one within five years, and only 44% manage it within ten years. </p>
<p>Many older women who rent have more than enough savings for a deposit but can’t buy because they won’t stay in the workforce long enough to pay off the mortgage by the time they retire.</p>
<p>This condemns many to poverty. Nearly <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/unaffordable-housing-is-the-biggest-threat-to-a-comfortable-retirement/">half</a> of retired renters live in poverty, including 63% of the retired single women who rent.</p>
<p>That’s because retirees with mortgages spend less and less as they pay them down whereas rents keep going up. </p>
<p>The typical outright owner aged over 65 <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Grattan-Institute-sub-balancing-act-retirement-income-review.pdf">spends just 5%</a> of income on housing, compared to nearly 30% for the typical renter.</p>
<h2>A national shared equity scheme would help</h2>
<p>Whoever wins the election should introduce a <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/levelling-the-playing-field-its-time-for-a-national-shared-equity-scheme/">national shared equity scheme</a>. </p>
<p>Under our proposal the federal government would co-purchase up to 30% of the value of the home, taking up to 30% of any capital gains when it is eventually sold. </p>
<p>Limits would include a requirement for buyers to have at least a 5% deposit, be earning less than $60,000 for singles and $90,000 for couples, and to buy a property priced below the median for their city or region.</p>
<p>The government would not charge rent or interest in exchange for its 30% stake.</p>
<p>However, purchasers would be required to cover all costs associated with buying and selling the home including conveyancing and stamp duty and ongoing costs such as council rates and maintenance.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/400-000-women-over-45-are-at-risk-of-homelessness-in-australia-142906">400,000 women over 45 are at risk of homelessness in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The scheme should start with a trial of 5,000 places.</p>
<p>Although not aimed specifically at separated older women, they would be among those most likely to benefit. </p>
<p>Shared equity would reduce the size of the loan many women need to take out to buy a home, making it possible to pay it off by retirement, including by using some of their super. </p>
<p>Women that lose their home during a separation could use the government’s 30% stake to quickly get back into the market. </p>
<p>The targeted scheme we propose should have a modest impact on home prices.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-matters-is-the-home-most-retirees-well-off-some-very-badly-off-150465">What matters is the home: most retirees well off, some very badly off</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Even if it were to eventually offer 10,000 shared equity loans a year, with each buyer purchasing a $500,000 home, it would only add at most $5 billion in housing demand each year to a $9 trillion market, and probably less. </p>
<p>The direct cost would be small – $220 million over the first four years. </p>
<p>In fact, the scheme might be a net positive for the budget in the long term, if house prices rise faster than the interest rate on government debt.</p>
<p>Existing state schemes, such as WA’s <a href="https://www.keystart.com.au/loans/shared-ownership-home-loan">Keystart</a>, have turned a profit. </p>
<h2>It shouldn’t be a substitute</h2>
<p>Shared equity is no substitute for governments taking the tough decisions needed to make housing more affordable, such as <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/housing-affordability-re-imagining-the-australian-dream/">loosening planning laws</a> and winding back housing tax breaks such as negative gearing and the capital gains tax discount. </p>
<p>And the federal government should assist older women already renting in poverty with a 40% boost to Commonwealth Rent Assistance, and a<a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/the-jobseeker-rise-isnt-enough/"> further increase to JobSeeker</a>. </p>
<p>But the scheme we are proposing would keep the dream of home ownership alive for many older women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177452/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute's board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute's activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website.</span></em></p>When a homeowning couple splits, it is the woman who is most likely to be forced to rent. Our proposal would help change that.Brendan Coates, Program Director, Economic Policy, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1750632022-01-31T23:34:14Z2022-01-31T23:34:14ZWould you pass this financial literacy quiz? Many won’t – and it’s affecting expensive aged care decisions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441204/original/file-20220118-19-16ka7jy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6720%2C4466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Paying for residential aged care accommodation in Australia is complex. Residents can pay a lump sum payment known as a refundable accommodation deposit (RAD), a rental style payment known as a daily accommodation payment (DAP), or a combination of both.</p>
<p>Deciding between the two is an important, complex financial decision and influenced by a host of factors unique to each person. And the stakes are high; it’s common to sell the family home to pay for aged care accommodation. Making the wrong accommodation payment decision could lead to reduced income and wealth, paying more for care, and having less to leave in bequests when you pass away.</p>
<p>Many residents get help from loved ones to navigate their way into residential aged care because they are experiencing age-related cognitive decline. So how do people make this decision and what role does financial literacy play?</p>
<p>To find out, colleagues and I measured financial literacy among 589 informal carers that substantially helped a resident decide. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.mq.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1182406/The-role-of-financial-literacy-when-paying-for-aged-care_FINAL.pdf">study</a> found less than half of all respondents were financially literate. Many were underconfident in
their financial literacy. Others were overconfident, potentially leading to accommodation payment decision mistakes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441205/original/file-20220118-15-nd1bgj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many residents receive help from loved ones to navigate their way into residential aged care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/weve-had-20-aged-care-reviews-in-20-years-will-the-royal-commission-be-any-different-103347">We've had 20 aged care reviews in 20 years – will the royal commission be any different?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The role of financial literacy</h2>
<p>Our study explored whether financial literacy influenced the decision to consult a financial adviser and whether financial literacy impacted decision confidence, stress, and perceived decision complexity. </p>
<p>We used a validated financial literacy measure known as the “Big Three” questions. You can do the quiz below; we defined someone as financially literate if they got three questions correct.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-629" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/629/31c0d4b67fe36d4880dc9342bc6736418d127b9d/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>This measured literacy on inflation, interest rate, and risk diversification. We also asked respondents to rate their financial literacy.</p>
<p>We found:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>nearly one third of respondents were not certain the accommodation payment decision was the best for the resident financially</p></li>
<li><p>around 60% of respondents found deciding on how to pay for accommodation complex, and over half found deciding how to pay for accommodation stressful</p></li>
<li><p>less than half of all respondents were financially literate. Many were overconfident in their financial literacy, which could lead to worse financial outcomes for the resident. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Many respondents may have ignored complex information or used a mental shortcut (what researchers call “simplifying heuristics”) when making an accommodation payment decision. For example, they might sell their home and choose a RAD without considering the capital gain they could have received if they had kept the home. </p>
<h2>Getting advice</h2>
<p>Just over one third of respondents used a financial advisor. More financial literacy was unlikely to have increased the use of a financial adviser. Highly financially literate individuals were more likely to use a financial adviser if they perceived their financial literacy as low. </p>
<p>Residential aged care providers also played a role. A respondent was more likely to use a financial adviser if the aged care provider suggested using a financial adviser, or informed them the resident had 28 days to make a payment decision once they entered care. While this condition should be in the final accommodation agreement, it may not be explicitly stated by the provider when discussing accommodation payment options. </p>
<p>We found higher financial literacy may help respondents understand the difference between a RAD and DAP, but was unlikely to increase decision confidence or reduce decision stress.</p>
<p>High financial literacy was associated with greater confidence only if respondents thought they had been enough time to make the decision. This suggests some people could make better decisions if aged care providers gave people more time to make a decision.</p>
<p>Respondents with high financial literacy were also more likely to be confident in their decision if the aged care provider didn’t say whether it preferred the resident to pay a RAD or a DAP. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441206/original/file-20220118-27-1n06mjj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Financial literacy education may help some people, but our study suggests benefits will be limited.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what would help?</h2>
<p>It’s not possible to say whether RAD, DAP, or some combination of both is better; the answer depends on your circumstances. Selling the home when entering care may not be the best option financially.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/financial-information-service">Financial Information Service</a> run by Services Australia can help people better understand their financial affairs and how to use financial planning advice, but does not advise on which accommodation payment type is best. </p>
<p>Financial literacy education may help some people, but our study suggests benefits will be limited. </p>
<p>Each resident has unique financial and personal circumstances. To make an informed accommodation payment decision, you need to factor in and predict the future value of financial assets.</p>
<p>The Australian government is still exploring whether it should remove RADs, as suggested by the Royal Commission on Aged Care Quality and Safety. This would simplify the accommodation payment choice but likely take years to implement. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=265&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441888/original/file-20220121-9299-620icq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Royal Commission on Aged Care Quality and Safety recommended RADs be phased out.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">https://agedcare.royalcommission.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-03/final-report-recommendations.pdf</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When discussing accommodation payment options, all residential aged care providers should ensure residents know they have 28 days to make a decision once they enter care. </p>
<p>That will help reduce decision complexity and stress and increase decision confidence. </p>
<p>Providers should also not express their preference for receiving a RAD or DAP, as our results show, this can make the decision more complex for people and give them less confidence in their decision.</p>
<p>The Australian government should also explore subsidising access to financial advice or establishing its own financial adviser service. </p>
<p>This would align with other Australian government programs to improve health and wealth outcomes for older Australians, such as prostate and breast cancer screening and Life Checks.</p>
<p>When moving into residential aged care, good financial outcomes are as important.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/older-australians-are-already-bamboozled-by-a-complex-home-care-system-so-why-give-them-more-of-the-same-173326">Older Australians are already bamboozled by a complex home-care system. So why give them more of the same?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded using an unconditional grant from the Ecstra Foundation. MUCHE has received government funding for aged care related work. This story is part of a series on financial and economic literacy funded by Ecstra Foundation.</span></em></p>We measured financial literacy among 589 informal carers that substantially helped an older person make a decision about paying for residential aged care. Less than half were financially literate.Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1755732022-01-25T06:01:12Z2022-01-25T06:01:12ZRaising UK state pension age to 66 has seen big increase in working 65-year-olds, but particularly deprived women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442274/original/file-20220124-23-ig6ri5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Retirement is not what it used to be. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/asset_images/442274">Gary Craig</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UK state pension age has been rising in recent years, most recently with a <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/310231/spa-timetable.pdf">staggered increase</a> for both men and women from 65 to 66 between December 2018 and October 2020. While the male state pension age had previously been 65 since the late 1940s, for women this followed a previous rise in their state pension age from 60 to 65 between 2010 and 2018. </p>
<p>Further increases have been legislated, starting with an increase for both men and women from 66 to 67 scheduled between 2026 and 2028, as the government attempts to counteract some of the pressures to the national finances brought on by an ageing population. The government also recently launched the <a href="https://www.cipp.org.uk/resources/news/dwp-starts-the-next-review-of-state-pension-age.html#:%7E:text=The%20review%2C%20required%20by%20The,published%20by%207%20May%202023.&text=The%20last%20review%2C%20in%202017,to%2068%20by%20seven%20years.">second independent review</a> of the state pension age, to be published in May 2023, among whose questions is to consider whether to bring forward by eight years plans to raise the age to 68 by 2046. </p>
<p>But how are these increases to the state pension age likely to affect the labour market? In an <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/publications/15917">ongoing programme of work</a> at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, funded by the <a href="https://ageing-better.org.uk/">Centre for Ageing Better</a>, we have examined in detail the effect of the recent increase in the state pension age from 65 to 66 on economic activity. </p>
<p>The reform increased employment significantly among older workers. As you can see from the two charts below, it led to a marked increase in the share of 65-year-olds in paid work. We can see that, between late 2018 and late 2020, the employment rates of 65-year-old men and women jumped up by around ten percentage points each. This was not matched by a similarly large increase in the employment rates of 66 and 67-year-olds, indicating that the state pension age rise was driving this. </p>
<p><strong>Employment rates of men aged 65-67</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442255/original/file-20220124-17-2fzrqx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The black vertical line shows the last quarter in which all 65-year-olds were over the state pension age (2018Q3); ppt = percentage point.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Employment rates of women aged 65-67</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442256/original/file-20220124-15-lqdgrp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The black vertical line shows the last quarter in which all 65-year-olds were over the state pension age (2018Q3); ppt = percentage point.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Overall, we estimate that the increase in the state pension age led to an additional 7% of men and 9% of women staying in paid work at age 65 – this translates to around 55,000 extra 65-year-olds in paid work. By mid-2021, the male employment rate at age 65 had risen to 42% (from 35%) and the female rate to 31% (from 22%). </p>
<p>Both are the highest seen since at least the mid-1970s and, at least in the case of women, very likely to be the highest rate ever in the UK. But, despite this increase, it still means that the majority of men and women are not in paid work before they reach the state pension age of 66. However, employment rates at these older ages vary along several characteristics, so it’s important to analyse how different groups responded to the state pension age rise.</p>
<h2>Unequal employment effects</h2>
<p>In the most deprived 20% of areas, women’s employment rate at the age of 65 rose by 13 percentage points and men’s by ten percentage points. In contrast, in the most prosperous areas, female and male employment rates at age 65 rose by just four and five percentage points respectively. These results suggest that less-advantaged people are more likely to continue to work as a result of the higher state pension age, probably because many of them cannot afford to retire without state pension income. </p>
<p>It is true that most of those who continue in paid work due to the reform are likely to be financially better off by doing so, because their extra earnings are likely to outweigh their lost pension income. We find that most of the increase in paid work is full-time work, despite the fact that 20 hours a week of employment at the UK adult minimum wage (National Living Wage) of £8.91 per hour would be sufficient to make up for the loss of a full new state pension. </p>
<p>But while financially better off, this is not to say that many of these workers would not have preferred to have been able to retire earlier and enjoy more leisure time. Delaying retirement may be difficult and disruptive for many, so the government should prioritise clear communication of changes to people’s state pension ages well in advance – especially to less-advantaged groups whose retirement plans may be more affected by the changes, and who <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/publications/15075">have been found to be</a> less aware of past state pension age reforms. </p>
<h2>Not everyone changed retirement plans</h2>
<p>Despite the large employment effects, it remains the case that more than 90% of 65-year-olds (around 640,000 of them) have not changed whether they are in paid work at age 65 purely because of the higher state pension age. This is in large part because the majority of men and women have already left the labour market before their 65th birthday, while some others would have remained in paid work even if the state pension age had remained at 65. </p>
<p>A group that faces obvious difficulties as a result of the higher state pension age are those who would like to work but cannot, perhaps because they can’t find a job, or because of health problems. We find that the higher state pension age led to 5,000 extra unemployed 65-year-olds and an additional 25,000 65-year-olds who report that they cannot work due to poor health. </p>
<p>Given the lower generosity of the working-age benefit system compared to the state pension, this group will be of particular concern for policymakers. In particular, ensuring that older jobseekers are sufficiently supported – for example, by ensuring that Jobcentre staff are attuned to their needs and challenges – to find appropriate work becomes ever more important as the state pension age rises.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175573/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurence O'Brien does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The proportion of 65-year-olds in work is up by about ten percentage points since 2018.Laurence O'Brien, Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1720472022-01-02T18:45:43Z2022-01-02T18:45:43ZI’m approaching a ‘milestone’ birthday. What health checks should I have at my age?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437137/original/file-20211213-27-13hwjyc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Hli3R6LKibo">Adi Goldstein/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Haven’t had a health check in a while, or ever?</p>
<p>You’re not alone. Most people wait until they’re sick to see a GP, so there’s not usually much time in a consultation to also talk about preventative health. </p>
<p>So, should you book a check with your GP just to talk about what you can do to stay well? And if so what should you be discussing? </p>
<p>It depends on your life stage. </p>
<h2>Doctors won’t check you for everything</h2>
<p>It may surprise you there is <a href="https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD009009.pub3/full">no evidence</a> that a “general health check-up” will give you better health outcomes. </p>
<p>Some preventive checks in low-risk and otherwise well patients have <a href="https://www.racgp.org.au/clinical-resources/clinical-guidelines/key-racgp-guidelines/view-all-racgp-guidelines/guidelines-for-preventive-activities-in-general-pr/screening-tests-of-unproven-benefit">shown no benefit</a>, including some blood tests and imaging investigations, such as whole body CTs or MRIs for cancer screening.</p>
<p>As well as being a waste of your time and money, there is another concern with generic health screening: it may lead to <a href="https://www.wiserhealthcare.org.au/what-is-overdiagnosis/">overdiagnosis</a>, which results in additional tests, appointments, anxiety, drugs and even operations. Ironically, this can leave you less healthy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-should-you-get-general-health-check-ups-22897">Health Check: should you get general health check-ups?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is why doctors don’t “check you for everything”, but are guided by what you personally would benefit from, based on your individual history, as well as which tests have evidence for their benefits outweighing any harms.</p>
<p>One of your doctor’s key considerations will be your age.</p>
<h2>Young adults (20–30s)</h2>
<p>The main evidence-based screening check for young adults is the <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/national-cervical-screening-program">cervical screening test</a> for women. This is a five-yearly cervical swab which looks for the human papillomavirus (HPV) and pre-cancerous cells.</p>
<p>When young women present for their cervical smear test, several other important preventative discussions often take place, including pregnancy prevention or planning. </p>
<p>As young men don’t need an equivalent screening test, they often miss out on the chance to talk about prevention.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two men at work look at their computers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437138/original/file-20211213-25-i56yqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437138/original/file-20211213-25-i56yqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437138/original/file-20211213-25-i56yqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437138/original/file-20211213-25-i56yqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437138/original/file-20211213-25-i56yqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437138/original/file-20211213-25-i56yqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437138/original/file-20211213-25-i56yqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young men might need to be more proactive about seeing a GP in their 20s and 30s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/AkftcHujUmk">Annie Spratt/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both men and women in this age group should find a GP with whom they feel comfortable discussing STI (sexually transmitted infection) checks, skin cancers, <a href="https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/-/media/ResourceCentre/Evidence-review-prevention-of-mental-health-conditions-August-2020.pdf?la=en&hash=6CDC96F267CBED73CC3EFB8803C2E6EBCD169C43">mental health struggles</a> and intimate partner violence. </p>
<p>Even otherwise fit and healthy young adults should consider talking with their GP about what they can do to prevent chronic disease down the track. Health behaviours such as diet, sleep, smoking and exercise levels in young adulthood <a href="https://www.racgp.org.au/getattachment/679b579a-cec8-4f6a-a19d-eec9b47d918e/attachment.aspx?disposition=inline">increase or decrease the risk</a> of developing conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, strokes, and cancer down the track.</p>
<p>Finally, regular checks from dentists and optometrists can pick up problems early. </p>
<h2>40–50 year olds</h2>
<p>Despite the adage “life begins at 40”, this is the age at which many of the things that can cause an early death are worth screening for. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.racgp.org.au/getattachment/c9b0be76-8320-4f64-b0f8-371ae429a41b/Lifecycle-chart.pdf.aspx">Current evidence shows</a> benefits in assessing your blood pressure, cholesterol, and risk of heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease and skin cancer. </p>
<p>If you have a higher risk for certain cancers (such as breast or colorectal cancer), then screening for these may start around this age too. </p>
<p>It’s also not too late to improve your longevity with some lifestyle changes so discussing things like losing weight, stopping smoking, and improving your exercise are all important. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/you-dont-have-to-be-the-biggest-loser-to-achieve-weight-loss-success-11587">You don't have to be the biggest loser to achieve weight loss success</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As with young adults, women should continue getting a cervical smear test every five years. </p>
<p>And everyone should consider getting checked by a dentist and optometrist. </p>
<p>Mental health may deteriorate around this age too, because the strain from looking after children, ageing parents and demanding careers can all come to a head. Input from a psychologist may be helpful.</p>
<h2>50–65 year olds</h2>
<p>Patients often comment on the 50th “birthday present” they find in the mail: a stool sample collection kit for colorectal cancer screening. While it’s not the highlight of your 50s, it is <a href="https://gut.bmj.com/content/67/2/291">effective in saving lives</a> through early detection of this cancer, with checks recommended every two years. </p>
<p>Women will also be invited to start mammograms for <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/breastscreen-australia-program/having-a-breast-screen/who-should-have-a-breast-screen">breast cancer screening every two years</a> (unless they have already started in their 40s, depending on their individual risk). </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman jogs along the beach with her dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437139/original/file-20211213-17-gsfstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437139/original/file-20211213-17-gsfstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437139/original/file-20211213-17-gsfstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437139/original/file-20211213-17-gsfstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437139/original/file-20211213-17-gsfstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437139/original/file-20211213-17-gsfstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437139/original/file-20211213-17-gsfstj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women will be screened for a breast cancer, colorectal cancer and osteoporosis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-elderly-woman-running-along-beach-676830847">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The third health issue to start screening for in your 50s is osteoporosis, a condition where bones become fragile and your risk of a fracture increases. Osteoporosis is painless and therefore often not discovered until too late. You can start checking your risk for this at home via an online calculator, such as <a href="https://www.knowyourbones.org.au/">this one</a> from the Garvan Institute.</p>
<p>Oral health and eye checks remain important in this age group as well.</p>
<h2>Over-65s</h2>
<p>Several immunisations are <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/immunisation/immunisation-throughout-life/immunisation-for-seniors">recommended from the age of 65</a>, including shingles and influenza, as your immunity starts to wane and your risk of serious illness increases. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vaccination-isnt-just-for-kids-a-guide-for-over-65s-27869">Vaccination isn't just for kids – a guide for over-65s</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Other preventative checks include those for your vision, dental health, hearing, and your risk of falls. These often involve allied health providers who can screen, monitor and treat you as needed. </p>
<p>Some of your other regular screening will stop in your mid-70s, including for colorectal, cervical and breast cancer.</p>
<h2>First Nations people</h2>
<p>The above age-related recommendations are for those with standard risk factors. First Nations Australians are at higher risk of developing a range of diseases including diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease and certain cancers. </p>
<p>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may be offered <a href="https://www.racgp.org.au/FSDEDEV/media/documents/Clinical%20Resources/Resources/National-guide-3rd-ed-Sept-2018-web.pdf">more thorough screening</a>, according to a different timeline, with some checks at earlier ages. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/words-from-arnhem-land-aboriginal-health-messages-need-to-be-made-with-us-rather-than-for-us-100655">Words from Arnhem land: Aboriginal health messages need to be made with us rather than for us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While annual generic “health checks” aren’t recommended, a conversation with your GP will help you work out your specific health risks and screening needs. </p>
<p>Prevention is better than a cure, so make sure you’re accessing evidence-based screening and preventative strategies that are right for you.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172047/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha Yates is a member of the RACGP. </span></em></p>Doctors don’t ‘check you for everything’, but are guided by what you personally would benefit from, based on your age and individual history.Natasha Yates, Assistant Professor, General Practice, Bond UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1680122021-09-24T13:35:57Z2021-09-24T13:35:57ZInvisible lives: where are all the older women in film and TV?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423108/original/file-20210924-13-pfqiwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C27%2C5955%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/original-film-title-grace-and-frankie-english-title-grace-and-frankie-film-director-dean-parisot-year-2015-stars-jane-fonda-lily-tomlin-credit-netflix-album-image209361045.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=A802E47F-C9E9-4F2C-94F6-CC3E1FA7D243&p=697459&n=26&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D0%26sortby%3D2%26qt%3Dgrace%2520and%2520frankie%26qt_raw%3Dgrace%2520and%2520frankie%26qn%3D%26lic%3D3%26edrf%3D0%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26aoa%3D1%26creative%3D%26videos%3D%26nu%3D%26ccc%3D%26bespoke%3D%26apalib%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26ot%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D%26dtto%3D%26size%3D0xFF%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26archive%3D1%26name%3D%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D1324175%26userid%3D%26id%3D%26a%3D%26xstx%3D0%26cbstore%3D1%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26apalic%3D%26tbar%3D1%26pc%3D%26simid%3D%26cap%3D1%26customgeoip%3DGB%26vd%3D0%26cid%3D%26pe%3D%26so%3D%26lb%3D%26pl%3D0%26plno%3D%26fi%3D0%26langcode%3Den%26upl%3D0%26cufr%3D%26cuto%3D%26howler%3D%26cvrem%3D0%26cvtype%3D0%26cvloc%3D0%26cl%3D0%26upfr%3D%26upto%3D%26primcat%3D%26seccat%3D%26cvcategory%3D*%26restriction%3D%26random%3D%26ispremium%3D1%26flip%3D0%26contributorqt%3D%26plgalleryno%3D%26plpublic%3D0%26viewaspublic%3D0%26isplcurate%3D0%26imageurl%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D%26t%3D0%26filters%3D0">Alamy</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a female actor in my mid 50s I’ve never felt more invisible, neither have I felt angrier. There are few parts out there for women my age and as much as there are some decent roles for the big guns – think <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-oscars-finally-made-it-less-lonely-for-women-at-the-top-of-their-game-157240">Frances McDormand in Nomadland</a>, <a href="https://www.latimes.com/lifestyle/story/2019-09-18/catherine-ohara-schitts-creek-emmy-awards">Catherine O'Hara in Schitt’s Creek</a> or <a href="https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80017537">Jane Fonda in Grace and Frankie</a> – there simply aren’t enough to go around. It’s thoroughly depressing and it feels like it’s <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/women-film-representation-female-protagonists-2018-mans-celluloid-world-study-a8786616.html">getting worse</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/the-ageless-test/">Research</a> from 2019 found that older women are often relegated to supporting roles in films – or are consistently portrayed as grumpy, frumpy or senile. </p>
<p><a href="https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/frail-frumpy-and-forgotten-report.pdf">The study</a> analysed representations of older adults, in the top-grossing films of 2019 in Germany, France, the UK and the US – with a specific focus on women aged 50 and over. The study found there weren’t any women over 50 cast in leading roles in 2019’s top films, while two men over 50 were featured as leads. And when older women did appear, they were cast stereotypically.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2018_Its_a_Mans_Celluloid_World_Report.pdf">study from 2018</a> found that only 35% of the top-grossing films from that year featured 10 or more female speaking characters. Compare this to the 82% that had 10 or more male characters in speaking roles.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/women-in-film-what-does-the-data-say/">an analysis</a> of over 10,000 films made in the UK between 1911 and 2017 found the gender mix in UK film casts has not improved since the end of the second world war. Female actors have also tended to make fewer films and have had shorter careers than male actors. </p>
<p>The analysis also found that unnamed characters who work in high-skilled occupations, such as a doctor, are also much more likely to be portrayed by men. </p>
<p>Caroline Noakes MP, the chair of the women and inequalities committee, has highlighted this <a href="https://youtu.be/GkFkRxU525k">issue on Twitter</a> saying she has written to Ofcom to ask for a meeting about the <a href="https://www.noon.org.uk/age-is-the-box-no-one-ticks-when-it-comes-to-diversity/">under representation of women</a> aged over 45 by UK broadcasters. </p>
<h2>Written out</h2>
<p>What’s perhaps most disturbing is the impact this is having on women and girls of all ages. It’s a painful irony that a multi-billion pound industry, purporting to mirror real life is essentially erasing women’s stories from our screens. </p>
<p>And when older women are shown, TV and film casting often favours women who have bodies that are the shapes and sizes of younger women. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262575877_The_Influence_of_Television_and_Film_Viewing_on_Midlife_Women's_Body_Image_Disordered_Eating_and_Food_Choice">Research from the US</a> has linked this to eating disorders and negative body image in older women.</p>
<p>The same goes for women <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191129-why-arent-there-more-women-film-directors">behind the camera</a>. In the US, for example, women comprised just 8% of directors working on the top 250 US domestic grossing films in 2018.</p>
<p>Victoria Mapplebeck, professor in digital arts at Royal Holloway University of London has recently <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-won-a-bafta-with-my-iphone-after-struggling-to-re-enter-the-industry-as-a-mother-167560">written about</a> how she was unable to continue working as a film director after she had a child. She writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I had to give up my career as a director overnight, realising that the insecurity of a freelancer didn’t mesh with being a single parent. Flexible working wasn’t on the table 17 years ago. Back then you were expected to work long hours and weekends. I knew this would be impossible while raising my son alone.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unable to get funding, she took matters into her own hands and used to iPhone to make a new documentary. She won a Bafta for her smartphone short <a href="https://victoriamapplebeck.com/films/missed-call/">Missed Call</a>.</p>
<h2>Women off-screen</h2>
<p>In my work as an actor and writer, I’ve witnessed how the industry treats older women – if I send a script to a producer, for example, I’m inclined to include only my initials.</p>
<p>I have recently written and performed a spoken word piece to raise awareness of this issue, in support of the <a href="https://instagram.com/actingyouragecampaign?utm_medium=copy_link%22">Acting your Age</a> campaign, which calls for equal career trajectory for men and women in the entertainment industry.</p>
<p>My piece talks to the Silver Foxes – the men of the industry: “bossing stage and screen, being seen while his female counterparts gather dust…tentatively wondering if surgery is an option”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/tv/CT9tmHKoGym/?utm_medium=copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>The campaign, started by actor and campaigner, Nicky Clarke, has been supported by the likes of David Tennant, Julie Graham, John Simm, Amanda Abbingdon, Ray Winstone and Juliet Stevenson. </p>
<p>Hugh Quarshie, a Ghanaian-born British actor, who has also backed the campaign, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CS1hl1mDIU7/?utm_medium=copy_link">likened the invisibility</a> of older women on screen to past black representations in TV and film. He says serious pressure must be put on the producers and broadcasters to provoke rapid change and deal with the problem of invisibility.</p>
<p>As part of her <a href="http://www.mrsnickyclark.com/-acting-your-age--campaign.html">research for the campaign</a>, Clarke found that only 9% of UK viewers can recognise more than 15 women over the age of 45 on our screens compared to 48% of viewers who can easily identify more than 15 men of that age on screen. </p>
<p>While 50/50 gender split in roles and more older women cast in TV and film will help matters, what we really need is more women behind the camera and in the writing studios telling stories that women of all ages want to hear. </p>
<p>In the age of multiple streaming services, this should be possible. Particularly so given that women <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/269943/daily-tv-viewing-time-in-the-uk-by-gender/">watch and stream more TV</a> shows than men. Women’s viewership needs to be valued, indeed, as the end of my poem states: “Beware, Beware, Beware…she ain’t going nowhere”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/168012/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s a painful irony that a multi-billion pound industry, purporting to mirror real life is essentially erasing women’s stories from our screens.Lisa Moore, Lecturer in comedy and performance, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1579522021-04-19T16:01:37Z2021-04-19T16:01:37ZThe #advancedstyle movement celebrates and empowers stylish older women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395801/original/file-20210419-23-1r2whno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=152%2C0%2C4639%2C3774&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Diana Ross rides on a float at 92nd Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the streets of Manhattan in 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Until recently, the idea of paying close attention to mature women’s style would have, at best, been met with little interest from other consumers and the fashion industry but most likely completely ignored. </p>
<p>After all, to be fashionable and feminine has typically been viewed as requiring youth. What could older female consumers possibly teach us about being stylish?</p>
<p>Following the unexpected popularity of what’s known as the “<a href="https://www.advanced.style/">advanced style</a>” phenomenon, discussions about ageism, gender and fashion have been attracting increasing attention in the popular media, including <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/style/instagram-grandmas.html">the <em>New York Times</em></a>. The <a href="https://www.instagram.com/advancedstyle/">@advancedstyle Instagram account</a>, created in 2008 by American street style photographer Ari Seth Cohen, helped fuel these critical conversations. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CNampJuBitR/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Cohen’s celebration of the personal styles of regular women 50 years of age and older has launched a flourishing consumer movement. </p>
<p>More than a decade after its creation, the Advanced Style Instagram account has more than 300,000 followers, boasts a hashtag <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/advancedstyle/">(#advancedstyle)</a> that’s been used more than 205,000 times, is regularly featured in major fashion magazines around the world, like <a href="https://www.vogue.com.au/fashion/street-style/advanced-styles-ari-seth-cohen-on-sydneys-senior-style-scene/news-story/0264eec1ded0e57824f23f9c14f4c42e"><em>Vogue Australia</em></a>, and expanded into the realm of coffee table books <a href="https://powerhousebooks.com/books/advanced-style1/">in 2012</a> <a href="https://powerhousebooks.com/books/advanced-style-older-and-wiser/">and 2016</a>, as well as <a href="https://powerhousebooks.com/books/advanced-style-coloring-book/">adult colouring books</a>. </p>
<p>There is even a feature-length documentary dedicated to the <em>Advanced Style</em> documentary:</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NX46yvihOGU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for the Advanced Style documentary via Moviefone.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In light of this social media success story, my colleague <a href="https://www.hec.ca/en/profs/marie-agnes.parmentier.html">Marie-Agnès Parmentier</a> and I decided to explore how women over 50 are amplifying their voices and changing representations in the fashion and beauty industries by becoming official Instagram influencers. </p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>To do so, we conducted a focused media <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.4135/9781412995511">and netnographic</a> investigation of the advanced style movement and its Instagram influencers. In particular, we followed 10 popular Advanced Style influencers from our personal Instagram accounts for 12 months. </p>
<p>This online participant observation, which is a big part of conducting netnographic research, provided us with first-hand experiences of the influencers’ marketing activities and fan interactions. </p>
<p>Our complete study is now published online in a special issue of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/712609">the <em>Journal of the Association for Consumer Research</em></a> focusing on gender, markets and consumers. Overall, we have found that all 10 Advanced Style influencers use the social media platform to actively fight gendered ageism rampant in the fashion and beauty industries.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An aging woman in a trench coat, colourful scarf and head scarf." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395770/original/file-20210419-23-q1xv8p.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Older women are defying ageist and sexist beauty standards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Advanced Style Facebook page)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Specifically, these women enact two forms of embodied resistance informed by the western dominant discourse of successful aging: They deconstruct gendered and ageist fashion, and they defy gendered and ageist beauty standards. </p>
<p>Successful aging not only turns people’s inevitable biological deterioration into a personal project, it also provides concrete strategies of how to best be old. In 1997, American physician John W. Rowe and his psychologist colleague Robert L. Kahn, defined successful aging, first and foremost, as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/37.4.433">encompassing the avoidance of disease and disability, the maintenance of high physical and cognitive function, and sustained engagement in social and productive activities</a>.”</p>
<h2>Gendered ageism in fashion</h2>
<p>The fashion market makes sustained engagement difficult, given it’s replete with discriminatory rules about what to wear and especially what not to wear once a woman turns 50. These style rules include no longer showing one’s body through tight, short or low-cut clothing, adopting a less colourful wardrobe and makeup and retreating from ultra-modern, cutting-edge styles.</p>
<p>In response, we find the advanced style consumers-turned-influencers engage in <a href="https://montecristomagazine.com/essay/defying-ageist-fashion-rules">online “style activism,”</a> demanding designers create ready-to-wear options for their changing bodies. </p>
<p>In the sphere of influencer marketing, style activism also means deciding what brands to endorse and collaborate with, and what brands to pass and avoid. The advanced style influencers often refuse to be “<a href="https://thekit.ca/style/canadian-fashion-designers-roundtable/">the token senior</a>” of a marketing campaign. </p>
<h2>Gendered ageism in beauty industry</h2>
<p>The majority of the advanced style influencers equally reject the anti-aging beauty industry that <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/WN/selling-fountain-youth-author-arlene-weintraub-anti-aging/story?id=11533763">transforms getting older into a disease</a>. The multi-billion-dollar industry also falsely promises everlasting youth in a bottle. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Helen Mirren in a dark suit with gold buttons and stiletto-heeled boots" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395352/original/file-20210415-23-1rfkrm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C61%2C4452%2C2959&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395352/original/file-20210415-23-1rfkrm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395352/original/file-20210415-23-1rfkrm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395352/original/file-20210415-23-1rfkrm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395352/original/file-20210415-23-1rfkrm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395352/original/file-20210415-23-1rfkrm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395352/original/file-20210415-23-1rfkrm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actress Helen Mirren poses for photographers during the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, in February 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We find that these women opt instead to popularize natural, greying hair, wrinkles and body scars through their Instagram posts. For eons, beauty brands have told aging women that greying hair is a mortifying problem that must be hidden, whereas for older men <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/gallery/mens-grey-hair-care-guide">it remains a sign of mature sexiness</a>. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvQoh6CSGvY">Grey hair</a> is consequently a defining feature of these influencers’ embodied resistance, and one that’s front and centre in their style activism. </p>
<p>We encourage everyone to follow the advanced style influencers’ consumer activism journeys on Instagram by engaging with the hashtag #advancedstyle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ela Veresiu receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). </span></em></p>A new study finds that women influencers over the age of 50 engage in style activism to combat ageist and sexist fashion and beauty industries.Ela Veresiu, Associate Professor of Marketing, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1513782021-02-18T19:11:46Z2021-02-18T19:11:46ZHow Chinese courtyard housing can help older Australian women avoid homelessness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384609/original/file-20210216-23-1dengzc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C0%2C4232%2C2826&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beijing-china-june-18-typical-courtyard-148617785">Rolf_52/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia urgently needs housing types that meet the needs of older women facing homelessness. One such model is Chinese <em>siheyuan</em> courtyard housing, which provides safe, affordable and private living spaces while maintaining a sense of community. It has potential for adapting existing buildings for re-use in Australia in a way that makes financial, social and environmental sense. </p>
<p>Women over 45 are one of the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/age-discrimination/publications/older-womens-risk-homelessness-background-paper-2019">fastest-growing groups</a> of people who are homeless in Australia. In 2020, an estimated <a href="https://theconversation.com/400-000-women-over-45-are-at-risk-of-homelessness-in-australia-142906">405,000 women</a> over 45 were at risk of <a href="https://www.anglicare.asn.au/research-advocacy/the-rental-affordability-snapshot/docs/default-source/default-document-library/rental-affordability-snapshot-2020">housing affordability stress</a> and hence becoming homeless. Considering the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/housing-affordability">shortage of affordable housing</a>, an <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sort-of-housing-do-older-australians-want-and-where-do-they-want-to-live-120987">ageing population</a> and the lifelong <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-australian-women-over-55-arent-exactly-enjoying-the-time-of-their-lives-62832">economic disadvantage</a> that women experience, this problem requires a speedy solution. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/400-000-women-over-45-are-at-risk-of-homelessness-in-australia-142906">400,000 women over 45 are at risk of homelessness in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A simple (and obvious) solution for older women facing homelessness is to provide them with access to appropriate, safe and affordable homes for the long term. So why is this problem so difficult to solve? </p>
<p>Recent attempts to meet this need for older women’s housing include “pop-up” or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/meanwhile-building-use-another-way-to-manage-properties-left-vacant-by-the-covid-19-crisis-144056">meanwhile use</a>” accommodation in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-01/could-empty-properties-solve-australias-need-for-social-housing/11655386">vacant aged-care facilities</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/interest-in-tiny-houses-is-growing-so-who-wants-them-and-why-83872">tiny houses</a>. While both types provide good short-term options, they do not create long-term housing that meets older women’s needs to age in place and have secure tenure and a sense of belonging. All these aspects are important for their well-being. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/meanwhile-building-use-another-way-to-manage-properties-left-vacant-by-the-covid-19-crisis-144056">'Meanwhile' building use: another way to manage properties left vacant by the COVID-19 crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>What if we were to take the idea of adapting existing buildings and merge it with the idea of tiny homes? Chinese courtyard housing – <em>siheyuan</em> – has some important principles that could be culturally adapted to the Australian context.</p>
<h2>Finding new spaces in old stock</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/articles/buildings-are-not-lifeless-objects-its-time-to-treat-them-as-such/">Adaptive reuse</a> involves the conversion of new spaces within old ones. An existing building is recycled by integrating a new set of functions into the existing skin to suit the needs of new inhabitants. </p>
<p>This is not a new concept – think of the <a href="https://hagiasophiaturkey.com/history-hagia-sophia/">Hagia Sophia</a> in Istanbul, variously a church, mosque and museum. Or <a href="https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/parks/paddington-reservoir-gardens">Paddington Reservoir</a> in Sydney, originally infrastructure, then petrol station, then ruin, now urban performance space. </p>
<p>Adaptive reuse works on a triple-bottom-line approach: economic, environmental and socio-cultural. Recycling an existing building is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-can-recycle-more-buildings-126563">cheaper</a>, better for the environment and ensures the collective memory of a place is not erased. For buildings as for older women, respect for age, connection to place and care for the environment are important. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unused-buildings-will-make-good-housing-in-the-world-of-covid-19-142897">Unused buildings will make good housing in the world of COVID-19</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Chinese wisdom in an Australian context</h2>
<p>The name “<a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/China_s_Old_Dwellings.html?id=PNnfwOo-WdAC"><em>siheyuan</em></a>” translates into quadrangle courtyard housing. This type of housing comes from traditional Confucian ideas of the extended family unit, arranged around a courtyard or series of courtyards with graduated levels of privacy. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384613/original/file-20210217-15-1hc96nz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hugo Chan</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The interesting thing about the <em>siheyuan</em> arrangement is the highly ordered series of rooms with private units organised around open spaces and communal halls for gatherings. In Beijing today, an estimated <a href="https://unhabitat.org/best-practices-on-social-sustainability-in-historic-districts">400,000 courtyard houses remain</a>. About 500 have been preserved as <a href="https://unhabitat.org/best-practices-on-social-sustainability-in-historic-districts">historic sites</a>. </p>
<p>The hierarchical order of the <em>siheyuan</em> presents a great opportunity for adapting it to suit the needs of older women. It’s a type of co-housing arrangement: people live independently but together, sharing some facilities like open space and areas to come together for occasional meals. This model could form part of the rise in <a href="https://nightingalehousing.org/nightingale-1">shared housing</a> configurations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/co-housing-works-well-for-older-people-once-they-get-past-the-image-problem-79907">Co-housing works well for older people, once they get past the image problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The courtyards meet the needs of older women to maintain a strong connection to a garden space, with potential for them to be active in maintaining this area. The courtyards promote social contact and exercise, as well as space for quiet contemplation. This interior-landscape connection is important to the well-being of older women.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="tradition Chinese siheyuan courtyard housing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384614/original/file-20210217-21-1uavkdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The connections between private living areas, courtyards and gardens promote well-being through social contact and exercise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lorena-david/318395233/in/photolist-u8RNZ-ErWEi-ErZuC-6NVCJe-ErWqb-ErY3G-ErX4x-ErWQj-2A3D6w-2hK5zS2-2hK2Y8c-5M2dTM-2hK5zMh-b4JXpF-ixz43v-iKi5Ye-7PHvTM-2i2JQji-b3JpZc-59kzJy-hCqtre-NxGg7a-iyonPo-u8fsx-Gh4GbU-ErXhT-ErZax-ErXGd-ohRim1-exzNqQ-jSZUU-bK9Qy-5AnCqt-9va4km-7bFYEY-pyifR1-8FdF8R-28PMANs-61V5gA-22AmPgH-6RPSt5-5ujpGt-4rpZCm-oDu7RD-6g3mBk-ARrBHy-7ouFV3-2tcPzk-dV6AkK-8A2utc">ByLorena/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The hall serves as a social connector. It’s a place for communal activities, connecting with family or friends, creative projects or listening. Women retain their sense of independence; they decide when they participate.</p>
<p>Another important requirement for older women is to have the space to welcome family and friends, so they maintain their social connections to the world. The hall is an efficient way to share space that everyone needs, but only some of the time.</p>
<p>The private units ensure the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-single-older-women-want-their-own-little-space-and-garden-to-call-home-for-a-start-84780">independence, safety and sense of belonging</a> that older women need. Cultural and social needs are met easily within one’s personal domain. </p>
<p>The small luxury of having a room of one’s own should not be underestimated. Many older women have <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/document/publication/ahrc_ow_homelessness2019.pdf">rarely had this luxury</a>. For them, it provides much-needed dignity.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-single-older-women-want-their-own-little-space-and-garden-to-call-home-for-a-start-84780">What do single, older women want? Their 'own little space' (and garden) to call home, for a start</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The adaptation mindset</h2>
<p>This sort of adaptive reuse is not just about what we do with existing buildings. It’s also about adapting cultural wisdom, and ideas from the past, to develop alternative ways of living together. Many currently <a href="https://www.savings.com.au/home-loans/number-of-vacant-properties-rises-40-in-sydney">underutilised or vacant buildings</a> in Australia could be adapted to courtyard housing. </p>
<p>It will need a radical shift in policy and developer-driven economics. But this opportunity would meet so many current needs of older women, be good environmental practice and provide social housing. As Confucius said, “Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”</p>
<p>The financial burden on taxpayers and service providers is dramatically reduced by providing secure affordable housing in the first place. The solution to the problem of homelessness lies not in our obsession with new housing models or new development, but perhaps, if we look hard enough, in our existing urban fabric. Right under our noses, existing buildings offer opportunities ripe for adaptation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sort-of-housing-do-older-australians-want-and-where-do-they-want-to-live-120987">What sort of housing do older Australians want and where do they want to live?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: this article has been updated to correct a reference to the Hagia Sophia originally being a mosque and now a museum. In 2020 it re-opened as a mosque, but it was first built as a church.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samantha Donnelly is affiliated with the UTS Design Innovation Research Centre </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hugo Chan's independent research work in adaptive reuse architecture was developed through the support of the Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship (2017) which is administered by the NSW Architects Registration Board. </span></em></p>Many older women are in desperate need of affordable housing where they can age in place securely, with dignity and as part of a community. The siheyuan model offers ways to meet these needs.Samantha Donnelly, Lecturer, School of Architecture, UTS and PhD candidate, XYX Lab, Monash Uni, University of Technology SydneyHugo Chan, Sessional Academic, UNSW Built Environment, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429072020-08-03T20:00:39Z2020-08-03T20:00:39Z‘Uprooting, no matter how small a plant you are, is a trauma’: older women renters are struggling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350081/original/file-20200729-21-1mvylp1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C22%2C3822%2C2525&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-older-woman-empty-room-boxes-128820712">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Older women renters are struggling in an <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-insecurity-of-private-renters-how-do-they-manage-it-77324">insecure</a> and <a href="https://www.anglicare.asn.au/research-advocacy/the-rental-affordability-snapshot">unaffordable</a> rental housing market. A combination of high rents and low incomes leaves many living in substandard housing and unable to afford necessities like food and energy bills.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.26183/5edf0f0d75cf8">My research</a> shows rent increases further stress household budgets, and evictions magnify these risks. COVID-19 makes the need for reform even more urgent. Secure housing is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2020.1756599">first line of community defence</a> against the pandemic.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/400-000-women-over-45-are-at-risk-of-homelessness-in-australia-142906">400,000 women over 45 are at risk of homelessness in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Unaffordable, substandard rentals</h2>
<p>Rental stress occurs when households spend more than 30% of their income on rent. On average, low-income households spend “<a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/renters">almost 40% of their disposable income on rent</a>”. </p>
<p>Many households experience relatively short periods of rental stress. However, older low-income renters have very limited options.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.26183/5edf0f0d75cf8">In a report released today</a>, single older women living on low incomes describe to me how high and rising rents left them struggling to meet day-to-day costs. Many paid rent before they bought food or paid power bills because the alternative was eviction. This is why the <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/renters">Productivity Commission</a> describes rental affordability as a “driver of disadvantage” for low-income households.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing percentages of income that low-income households and other households spend on rent" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350068/original/file-20200729-17-157n9jw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/renters">Productivity Commission</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/growing-numbers-of-renters-are-trapped-for-years-in-homes-they-cant-afford-125216">Growing numbers of renters are trapped for years in homes they can't afford</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, a rent increase left Tracey, a participant in my research, with only $30 after other essential costs were covered. She described her efforts to survive as “like my job. I’d go to one [charity] where they had the food cupboard and fresh produce” and to another where she could get a monthly food voucher. This experience was common.</p>
<p>To reduce their rental costs women often lived in substandard housing. For example, Michelle moved house seven times to find more affordable housing. She described her most recent house:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Gaps around all the windows and all the doors where literally, when it was windy, the curtain would blow and the wooden shutters, the wooden blinds, would actually blow.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While the rent was affordable, the cost for the house “rose astronomically” due to the need to use a heater throughout winter. Another participant, Toni, bought heavy curtains to try to block out the cold in her rental and, in an extreme example, clad the outside of two properties with tarpaulins to reduce draughts.</p>
<h2>Rental insecurity</h2>
<p>Older women also lived with high levels of rental insecurity. Private renters move more often than people in other housing tenures. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing how often private renters, social housing tenants and home owners move house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350071/original/file-20200729-21-1a3ljwa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/renters">Productivity Commission</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most older Australians wish to age in place in a familiar home and community. This is not an option for many older renters.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-australians-to-have-the-choice-of-growing-old-at-home-here-is-what-needs-to-change-91488">For Australians to have the choice of growing old at home, here is what needs to change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Older renters face a <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/renters">higher risk of eviction</a>. Landlord decisions to repurpose housing or increase rents can trigger involuntary moves. These are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2014.963522">recognised</a> drivers of first-time homelessness in older age.</p>
<p>For low-income older renters moving house drives financial risks. Moving house can be expensive. Costs include bond (typically four weeks’ rent, paid in advance), disconnection and reconnection of utilities, and removalists or vehicle hire. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Small van packed with household belongings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350083/original/file-20200729-13-6xzrax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350083/original/file-20200729-13-6xzrax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350083/original/file-20200729-13-6xzrax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350083/original/file-20200729-13-6xzrax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350083/original/file-20200729-13-6xzrax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350083/original/file-20200729-13-6xzrax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350083/original/file-20200729-13-6xzrax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The costs of moving house can set back renters’ budgets for months.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cardboard-boxes-furniture-car-on-city-753721615">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Gwen explained, “It’s all a cost factor.” For women living on already stretched budgets the risks are magnified.</p>
<p>Many women borrowed money to cover moving costs. This left them in debt that, as Gail explained, could take “months” to recover from. </p>
<p>Most downsized their possessions to make moving house cheaper and more manageable. Jenny explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You’ve got no choice. You’re parting with things that – well everything you’ve got together are part of your belongings and part of who you are and who you’ve established yourself to be. […] It’s part of your home.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Michelle drew parallels with the experiences of people “whose house caught fire or who’d had a flood” – only she was able to make choices about what to keep and what to give away.</p>
<p>The emotional costs were immense. Women described the stress and disappointment of forced relocations. Jenny explained the need to emotionally detach from her house: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>And once you know you’re moving, all of a sudden that house is no longer your home. You get to the point of saying, okay, this house isn’t mine – it’s only a house where I’m living at the moment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Relocating, Alice explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…] means rifling through my paltry possessions fairly often and that I find upsets me a bit. […] uprooting, no matter how small a plant you are, is a trauma. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>I report on these experiences of having to move house in further detail in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X20000768">just-released research paper</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sort-of-housing-do-older-australians-want-and-where-do-they-want-to-live-120987">What sort of housing do older Australians want and where do they want to live?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>It is time for reform</h2>
<p>Our federal government needs to permanently raise the JobSeeker payment and act on housing affordability to give low-income renters a fighting chance.</p>
<p>At a state level, it is time to end “no grounds” evictions. “With cause” measures, as recently introduced in Victoria, better balance tenants’ needs for housing security with the rights of landlords to repurpose properties when required. </p>
<p>We also need quantified minimum rental housing standards. New Zealand’s <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2014.963522">Healthy Homes</a> standards can be a model for us. These standards ensure only properties that are healthy and sound go to market.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chilly-house-mouldy-rooms-heres-how-to-improve-low-income-renters-access-to-decent-housing-116749">Chilly house? Mouldy rooms? Here's how to improve low-income renters’ access to decent housing</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The number of older Australians who rent is projected to increase over the next decade as <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/home-ownership-and-housing-tenure">home ownership levels decline</a>. The stories of older women in the private rental sector are a warning about the risks that declining housing affordability and rental insecurity pose to this growing group. They are the “canary in the coalmine” for Australia’s housing system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (Grant DE150100861). Emma has also recently received funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage Program, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), Common Equity NSW and Landcom. </span></em></p>High rents and insecurity are constant sources of financial and emotional stress for low-income women. They describe what it’s like struggling to survive and being one step away from being homeless.Emma Power, Senior Research Fellow, Geography and Urban Studies, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429062020-08-03T20:00:26Z2020-08-03T20:00:26Z400,000 women over 45 are at risk of homelessness in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349833/original/file-20200728-15-1vehdj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C0%2C4671%2C3130&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/senior-old-woman-despair-hands-over-766220701">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Older women have been recognised as the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/age-discrimination/projects/risk-homelessness-older-women">fastest-growing group of homeless people</a> in Australia in recent years. Yet until now we have not known exactly how many older women are at risk of homelessness. Our <a href="https://www.oldertenants.org.au/">research</a>, released today, finds about 240,000 women aged 55 or older and another 165,000 women aged 45-54 are at risk of homelessness. </p>
<p>The startling data from our research give us a much better picture of the scale of the problem. We also quantify the impacts of the various factors that may increase women’s risk of becoming homeless.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/320030/original/file-20200312-116261-a6ugi0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=90&fit=crop&dpr=2" alt="Sign up to The Conversation" width="100%"></a></p>
<p>Effective policy is grounded in quantifying the nature and complexity of issues. To date, a limited but <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/age-discrimination/publications/older-womens-risk-homelessness-background-paper-2019">growing number</a> of <a href="https://www.aag.asn.au/documents/item/2234">studies</a> have highlighted the experiences of older women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. But few studies quantified the numbers at risk and the factors that increase the risk.</p>
<h2>What puts women at risk?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Older woman looks at her rent payment notices." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349838/original/file-20200728-19-3m8gjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=972&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Older people who live in private rental housing are at higher risk of becoming homeless.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elderly-woman-grandmother-looking-rent-1744792334">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Older people are generally considered to be at less risk of homelessness because of their <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/home-ownership-and-housing-tenure">higher rates of home ownership</a>. But increasingly <a href="https://cepar.edu.au/resources-videos/research-briefs/housing-ageing-australia-nest-and-nest-egg">unaffordable housing</a> has added to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/home-ownership-now-the-great-divider-of-australian-society-20190919-p52syz.html">concerns</a> about the circumstances and living situations of older people who do not own homes, have limited wealth and savings and do not have the benefit of living in social housing. These households rely on the private rental market and are at considerable risk of <a href="https://www.anglicare.asn.au/research-advocacy/the-rental-affordability-snapshot/docs/default-source/default-document-library/rental-affordability-snapshot-2020">housing affordability stress</a> and hence homelessness. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/older-and-poorer-retirement-income-review-cant-ignore-the-changing-role-of-home-131151">Older and poorer: Retirement Income Review can't ignore the changing role of home</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To examine risk profiles, we constructed an empirical model of risk of homelessness since the 2007-09 Global Financial Crisis using data from the <a href="https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/hilda">Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey</a>. The modelling included people who hold a mortgage or pay rent in private or public housing and are aged 45 or older. </p>
<p>This work found older women are more likely to be at risk of homelessness if they have one or more of the following characteristics: </p>
<p>• have been at risk before</p>
<p>• are not employed full-time</p>
<p>• are an immigrant from a non-English-speaking country </p>
<p>• are in private rental housing</p>
<p>• would have difficulty raising emergency funds</p>
<p>• are Indigenous</p>
<p>• are a lone-person household</p>
<p>• are a lone parent (but little evidence for those never married).</p>
<p>We estimated these profiles using a statistical model to analyse the relationship between homelessness risk and the characteristics of interest. We controlled for other characteristics that are likely to influence the risk of becoming homeless but which were not the focus of the study. </p>
<h2>Risk factors compound each other</h2>
<p>Multiple factors compound the risk of being homeless. While noting sampling limitations (small samples in subgroups of the data and annual volatility), the HILDA data for the post-GFC period suggest:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>for women aged 55-64 in a private rental, about 28% are likely to be at risk</p></li>
<li><p>for women who are also not employed full-time the percentage at risk increases to about 34%</p></li>
<li><p>for those who are also a lone parent the risk rises to over 65%</p></li>
<li><p>the risk increases to over 85% if, in addition, they have experienced at least one prior occurrence of being at risk. </p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Bar chart shows how a women's risk of homeless increases with each extra risk factor" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349837/original/file-20200728-23-15z661u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Data: HILDA Survey</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clearly, a person’s propensity to be at risk of homelessness is cumulative over time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-and-more-older-australians-will-be-homeless-unless-we-act-now-87685">More and more older Australians will be homeless unless we act now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Why the numbers at risk will grow</h2>
<p>Our estimates of the numbers of people at risk are accurate to within plus or minus 10%. Based on Australian Bureau of Statistics <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3236.0">population projections</a>, it is clear that, without changes to policy, these numbers are likely to increase due to one important factor. The model shows a lone-person household is a dominant factor in increasing the likely risk of homelessness. </p>
<p>Lone-person households are expected to comprise 24-27% of all households by 2041. This equates to between 3.0 and 3.5 million Australians (of all ages). Female lone-person households are projected to increase by between 27.6% and 58.8% (ABS 2019b).</p>
<p>Australia has made <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/flat-wages-soaring-house-prices-australians-lifetime-renting/11898122">little policy progress on housing affordability</a>. We also have a <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/306">severe shortage of social housing</a> to meet demand. This points to the need to pursue other avenues to improve the lives of older low-income households. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-single-older-women-want-their-own-little-space-and-garden-to-call-home-for-a-start-84780">What do single, older women want? Their 'own little space' (and garden) to call home, for a start</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Ageing on the Edge Older Persons Homelessness Prevention Project – funded by the <a href="https://www.eqt.com.au/philanthropy/jo-and-jr-wicking-trust">JO and JR Wicking Trust</a> and administered by Housing for the Aged Action Group (<a href="https://www.oldertenants.org.au/haag/about">HAAG</a>) – has worked over the past five years to give voice to these older women who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The project works with interested agencies (government and non-government) to identify and promote early intervention and prevention strategies and to lobby for government policy change. </p>
<p>Of course, there is one simple answer to achieving long-term outcomes that allow people the basics of a decent older age: an appropriate affordable home.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Social Ventures Australia funded the research discussed in this article.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work was funded by Social Ventures Australia.</span></em></p>Older women have been the fastest-growing group of homeless people in recent years. New research shows about 240,000 women aged 55 or older and another 165,000 women aged 45-54 are at risk.Debbie Faulkner, Senior Research Fellow, UniSA Business, University of South AustraliaLaurence Lester, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Housing, Urban and Regional Planning, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1320992020-04-17T00:30:22Z2020-04-17T00:30:22ZChildhood, adolescence, pregnancy, menopause, 75+: how your diet should change with each stage of life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316114/original/file-20200219-10976-7514dg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C7337%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In today’s episode, Clare Collins, a Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Newcastle, explains how our diets might need to change depending on what stage of life we’re in. </p>
<p>The Conversation’s Phoebe Roth started by asking: what should kids be eating and how much should parents worry about children eating vegetables? </p>
<p>An edited transcript is below.</p>
<h2>New to podcasts?</h2>
<p>Everything you need to know about how to listen to a podcast is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-podcasts-130882">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/trust-me-im-an-expert/id1290047736?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D8"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233721/original/file-20180827-75984-1gfuvlr.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL2F1L3BvZGNhc3RzL3RydXN0LW1lLXBvZGNhc3QucnNz"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation/trust-me-im-an-expert"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> <a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/News--Politics-Podcasts/Trust-Me-Im-An-Expert-p1035757/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a></p>
<p><a href="https://radiopublic.com/trust-me-im-an-expert-Wa3E5A"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/7myc7drbLJVaRitAMXLB7V"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237984/original/file-20180925-149976-1ks72uy.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" width="268" height="82"></a> </p>
<p><strong>Additional audio credits</strong></p>
<p><em>Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from <a href="https://www.elefanttraks.com/">Elefant Traks.</a></em></p>
<p><em>Podcast episode recorded by Phoebe Roth and edited by Sophia Morris.</em></p>
<h2>Lead image</h2>
<p><em>Shutterstock</em></p>
<h2>Edited transcript</h2>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Parents worry so much about what children eat. But the rule of thumb is if they’re growing well, then you don’t need to worry. They are eating enough food. </p>
<p>And the way you know if they’re growing well is: if you take their baby book or you have a growth chart on your wall and you plot their height and weight regularly, you’ll be able to see if they’re following one of the lines on the growth chart. And that’s the best indicator. </p>
<p>The other thing that’s worth remembering is that a well child won’t starve themselves. But for children, their appetite is more variable than an adult. With us, we go, “Well, 12 o'clock, better eat lunch,” or “Oh, I’m awake, better have breakfast now because I’m going to be busy at work later.” But for children, they’re much more responsive to their internal cues. </p>
<p>And the younger the child, the more variable their appetite. So a typical thing is, a two or three year old might eat a massive breakfast and tomorrow they don’t eat any. At daycare, they might eat a huge lunch or none at all. And then the same thing happens at dinner. So if your child’s in daycare, you might want to look in the book or ask the staff, did they eat afternoon tea and lunch today? And that’ll give you a little bit of a guide as to whether you should be encouraging them to eat a little bit more dinner or just go, well, they had just had a massive afternoon tea, so they’re not really going to be hungry. </p>
<p>The other thing with children around the evening meal is that they often run out of steam by the end of the day. So having the evening meal as early as is practical. And for a young child, that may mean they’re having their dinner at five o'clock. And then what they eat at the family meal time is an optional extra. Because if you make them wait till 6 or 7pm, they’re over it and dinner becomes a nightmare. </p>
<p>The other thing that we know about kids, in terms of should we worry about them not eating vegetables, is we’ve actually done some research on this. And we found for kids around the age of three, the biggest predictor of their vegetable intake was not what mum had eaten in pregnancy. It was actually what the parents were eating now. So if you really want your children to eat heaps of veggies, it’s monkey-see-monkey-do, then that means we’ve got to look at how much we love our broccoli, mum and dad. And then that will make a big difference. </p>
<p>The other factor that comes into vegetable intake is genetics. And about 25% of people are what are called “super tasters”. That means they have got extra taste buds. And I wrote an article about this on The Conversation, actually. And so they taste things like the brassicas family – so Brussels sprouts, cauliflower – they taste it as more bitter than people who were either, not super tasters or, you know, have less taste buds. But more good news: even if you’re a super taster, if you don’t give up and you have repeated exposure, you even overcome that. So there’s no excuse for not liking your cauliflower. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-food-should-my-child-be-eating-and-how-can-i-get-them-to-eat-more-healthily-130470">How much food should my child be eating? And how can I get them to eat more healthily?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: That’s really interesting. I had no idea about a lot of that. So you started to touch on my next question, but I wonder if there are any other tips you’ve got. I was going to ask, what does the evidence say works for developing healthy eating habits during childhood or for kids if you’re worried perhaps they’re not eating as well as they should be. </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: The key thing for developing healthy eating habits in childhood is not giving up and trying not to stress. So really accepting there is variability. Studies have been done on toddler intake and shown that over 24 hours they pretty much eat about the same total energy intake. But if you look meal to meal, hugely variable, like I mentioned. </p>
<p>The other key time when I think parents, you know, the food wars can start around 18 months and then people go, you know, “the terrible twos, they just never eat anything!” Well, if you want to avoid the food wars, then around 18 months, just step back a little bit and observe how much food is your child usually eating, because up until 18 months, babies have tripled their birth weight. So, you know, born around, say you’re around three kilos, well around six months you’ll be six kilos and around 18 months you’ll be nine kilos. Now, if in the next 18 months you tripled your birth weight again, what would that be? Nine, 18, 36 kilos. Around that. So around 18 months, depending on a child’s activity, they can actually go through a period of time where their energy needs are relatively less and you are going “No, last month they’d eat a whole punnet of blueberries!” and then you may start trying to force feed them. That’s where the beginnings of the food wars can start. So, trusting, like I said, that a well child will not starve themselves. </p>
<p>It can be different if the child has medical requirements and need for a therapeutic diet. That’s a whole separate kettle of fish and you’d be needing to talk to your GP, maybe be referred to a dietitian for specific problems or if there’s actual feeding problems, a speech pathologist. </p>
<p>So for the average child, it is about exposure, letting them feed themselves, not force feeding them and rewarding the behaviour that you want to see. So picture this: dinner time at the table. One child chasing those veggies around the plate with a fork and the other child eating up the foods that they’re really hungry for. If you focus on the child doing the “right thing” – you know, “I love the way, Jodi, you’re eating that broccoli and carrots,” rather than, “hey, Sammy, you’re going to sit there til every pea has disappeared off your plate” – well, then you’re reinforcing that vegetables are disgusting. So if you focus on the behaviours you want to see, then the other children start to recognise that, “oh, I only get attention if I’m doing the ‘right thing’. ” So reward the behaviour you want to see. </p>
<p>Most of the dinner is consumed in 20 minutes. So don’t make the meals drawn out. And for kids with a smaller appetite, having healthy snacks will make up for what’s not eaten within 20 minutes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-parents-can-do-to-improve-their-childrens-eating-patterns-95370">Five things parents can do to improve their children's eating patterns</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: Okay, great. And today we’re discussing, obviously, the Australian Dietary Guidelines and sort of adapting diet at each stage of life. And so I wanted to know at which of life’s different stages might our dietary needs change? We’ve now talked about kids, but what about, say, for pregnant women, women going through menopause and any others?</p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Okay. For boys and girls, their dietary needs stay about the same until adolescence. And then that’s the first time the next alarm bells ring. Once girls start menstruating then their iron requirements are much, much greater. Boys, if they’re super active and they have a big increase in lean body mass – so it’s kind of like, you know, if you go from a little car to a big car, you need a lot more fuel – so for boys, all of a sudden they’re eating a lot more food. And meeting those nutritional requirements of adolescence is important because adolescence is also the time when teenagers typically experiment with different types of diets, you know, so they might be on a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet. So just keeping an eye on that. The key nutrients are iron – and you can get that from vegetarian foods and great articles on The Conversation about that, by the way. </p>
<p>And there’s also articles on The Conversation about adolescents and another typical issue that arises at adolescence, where parents are going “I wonder if this is a dietary problem” is diet and acne. And I’ve actually <a href="https://theconversation.com/mondays-medical-myth-chocolate-causes-acne-6934">written</a> on that for The Conversation. </p>
<p>And your nutrient needs for women change again during pregnancy and breastfeeding. The growing baby is a pretty good sponge. So it’s really the mum’s nutritional status that’s most at risk and the baby will be doing its best to grow with whatever fuel’s available. But to optimise the baby’s growth and development, you do want to have a nutritious dietary pattern. But you don’t need as much extra food and nutrients as you think. Basically, it’s equivalent to an extra tub of yoghurt and a salad sandwich to meet your extra requirements. But some diet-related problems do kick off in pregnancy like heartburn or developing constipation. And, you know, pregnant women and this happened to me as well, during pregnancy, go, hey, how come this is happening? Well, during pregnancy, there are hormonal changes to essentially slow down your transit time in your gut to give your body the best chance of getting any nutrients out of the food so to support the pregnancy. </p>
<p>And so eating healthily in pregnancy is really important, but you may need a boost in your dietary fibre intake. And one of the articles I’ve written for The Conversation is on how to manage constipation. And there’s a whole hierarchy of nutrition things you can do. And beyond that, then you really do need to mention it to your obstetrician or your GP in case you need some other type of like medicinal help. And then it’s got to make sure it’s something that’s safe for pregnancy. And you do need to talk to them about that. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-what-to-eat-and-avoid-during-pregnancy-30356">Health Check: what to eat and avoid during pregnancy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: Sure. Are there any other life stages where you might need to think about changing your diet? What if, say, you develop a particular health condition? </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: If you develop a particular health condition, then absolutely. The most common diet-related health conditions in Australia is type 2 diabetes. And some people are now being diagnosed with pre-diabetes, which is like an alarm bell and gives you a chance to change your dietary patterns and your lifestyle behaviours like physical activity so that you don’t go on to develop type 2 diabetes. And then the other one is heart disease. Both of those have dietary components. </p>
<p>So for type 2 diabetes, you’re likely to moderate the type and amount of carbohydrate. And for heart disease, there’s a whole range of bioactive foods that you can boost your intake of – whole grains, vegetables and fruit, reducing your saturated fat intake. And, you know, you can find articles about all of those things on The Conversation. </p>
<p>But if you read those and you go, oh, wow, it’s way more complex than I thought or I really would like some personalised advice, then ask your GP to refer you to an Accredited Practising Dietitian and get a personalised plan.</p>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: Yeah, absolutely. And the other one is menopause. I know you’re writing an article for us coming up on menopause and whether there are specific things you need to keep in mind regarding your diet. </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Menopause is really unfair because one of my colleagues, Lauren Williams, who’s co-authoring the article and she’s from Griffith University up there on the Gold Coast, is her whole PhD research was on this topic and she studied the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health and followed the women as they transitioned through menopause. And the average weight gain is about two and a half kilos. </p>
<p>But even that is not the most unfair aspect of menopause. What she discovered is that there’s no discount, if you like, on gaining weight, if you lived a healthy lifestyle already, that all women are prone to weight gain during menopause. And it’s a combination of the hormonal changes amplified by life changes. And some of those life changes are that for most women, the physical work actually reduces at that time. You know, the house might be less people living in your house and you don’t have to do as much housework. </p>
<p>For many women, you have more disposable income. So you actually can go out a little bit more, spend more money on eating out. And the other thing is it’s a life stage where alcohol intake increases in women. You know, the perfect storm. You know, you had this lovely, healthy lifestyle and then you gained weight. </p>
<p>But what she also found, which is the important message, is that during that menopausal transition, women who changed something, they went, “Right. I’m going to beat this weight gain.” And they decided to eat more vegetables or develop new, healthier recipes or walk a lot more. They did not gain that average two point, 2.5-ish kilos. </p>
<p>As much as I really think that sucks that we gain weight during menopause, I’m really pleased to know that it’s not inevitable, but it’s kind of like, you know, it’s like having to do a spring clean on your life stage patterns, on your dietary patterns and on your physical activity. And you can get through menopause in a healthy weight and with a healthy lifestyle and be healthier. But we have to be on guard. So unfair. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/health-check-six-tips-for-losing-weight-without-fad-diets-52496">Health Check: six tips for losing weight without fad diets</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: So in the healthy eating side of things, would that just be sort of following the Australian Dietary Guidelines? </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Well, yes, but we need to make a little note of caution about the Dietary Guidelines. And that is not many people eat like the Australian Dietary Guidelines. In fact, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare modelled what would happen if people did eat five serves of vegetables and two serves of fruit and had their whole grains and used reduced fat dairy and, you know, chose the leanest forms of protein. </p>
<p>They model that if everyone in Australia tomorrow started eating like the recommendations found in the Australian Dietary Guidelines, that heart disease rates would drop by 62% and that diabetes rates would drop by – type 2 diabetes rates, I should say – would drop by around 40%. That’s not going to happen. People aren’t going to do that. And we know that only 3 out of 100 Australians eat five serves of vegetables a day. </p>
<p>So, yes, definitely eat more like the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating and the Australian Dietary Guidelines, but a good place you can start is the <a href="https://healthyeatingquiz.com.au/">Healthy Eating Quiz</a>. This is a short quiz that takes less than 10 minutes to do. It’s free and it’s online. It rates your dietary patterns compared to recommendations in the Australian Dietary Guidelines. And that now links to a really fun website – we think it’s fun anyway because we invented it – called <a href="https://nomoneynotime.com.au/">No Money, No Time</a>. It’s got recipe recommendations to match with your <a href="https://healthyeatingquiz.com.au/">Healthy Eating Quiz</a> report. </p>
<p>We’ve set up some fun filters on there. So if you’ve only got a basic kitchen and you’ve got a microwave and just one pot, you can filter it for recipes matching your kitchen equipment. And we also added this other filter that allows you to say what your healthy lifestyle goals are. And we’ve catered for all ages on that. Some people told us their goal was to have glowing skin. And some people said, I want to do better in my sport. And some people have said I want to manage my weight. So you can further tailor the recipes for that. So <a href="https://nomoneynotime.com.au/">No Money, No Time</a> and the <a href="https://healthyeatingquiz.com.au/">Healthy Eating Quiz</a>. And that’s our way of trying to help Australians eat a little bit more healthy and feel better and have their health improve as well. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/got-pre-diabetes-heres-five-things-to-eat-or-avoid-to-prevent-type-2-diabetes-80838">Got pre-diabetes? Here's five things to eat or avoid to prevent type 2 diabetes</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: I am already keen to jump on that straight after this and give it a try. Great. So the Dietary Guidelines, would you say they’re a really good resource and reference point, but possibly not a one size fits all approach? </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Absolutely. And there are some resources on the government websites called Eat for Health, and there are some resources on that. And they are designed for the predominantly healthy Australian population while recognising that overweight and obesity are relatively common and that people are commonly seeking extra advice for things like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. There’s certainly a good first place to stop. But as I mentioned, you may need extra specialised help if you have some of those common chronic diseases. And a good place to start to find out is with a health check up with your general practitioner who can do a heart health check and check your blood pressure. And you know, if you don’t have scales at home, they can do a check on your weight. But more important than that is checking on your blood to see what your cholesterol level is and whether your blood sugar levels are high, indicating you’re at a higher risk for type 2 diabetes. </p>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: So what do people need to consider to ensure they’re following the right diet for their individual circumstances or for their stage of life? </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: I think the key thing, when it comes to diet-related health or nutrition-related health is knowing what your risk factors are for these chronic conditions. And really to know those, you do need to check in with a health professional, with your general practitioner. You might be a lucky person who has the genes that mean you have wonderful blood sugar levels and you have wonderful cholesterol levels and your blood pressure’s great. Then that would essentially mean that you’re doing the right things for your genes and for your body. But a check-up with your GP is usually a chance to see, you know, what does need to be tweaked in my diet? One of the things about high blood pressure is that it’s really common, but there’s absolutely no signs or symptoms. So until you get it checked by your GP, you wouldn’t even know. </p>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: What about for older people? What sort of things do they need to consider about diet? </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Once you start approaching 75 and above, then it’s interesting that your nutrition requirements and your dietary requirements start to shift a little bit. Once you get older, the focus moves to trying not to lose your muscle tissue. There’s a word for that malnutrition of older age and it’s called <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-muscle-wasting-condition-sarcopenia-is-now-a-recognised-disease-but-we-can-all-protect-ourselves-119458">sarcopenia</a>. And it’s really important. And so as you age to protect your body from sarcopenia, your protein requirements actually start to go up. </p>
<p>And people have this image of, “Oh, you know older people. They just need a cup of tea and a piece of toast.” Well, they actually don’t. They might need their coffee made on milk or they might need a nutritional supplement if their appetite’s really poor. And this is another time where you may need specialised nutrition advice. If there’s any underlying medical conditions or if the older people in your family are in a nursing home, you may need to talk to the nursing home staff about whether they’re meeting their nutritional requirements or not. </p>
<p>As you age physical activity and because your muscle mass decreases, your total energy intake reduces. And it’s a little bit like going from the big car down to the smaller car. You still need the same amounts of vitamins and minerals and things we call phytonutrients. You know, they’re not a vitamin or they’re not a mineral, but they help your body run better. You still need the same amount of them, but you need them in less energy. So there’s like less room for error. So the tea and toast isn’t adequate, you know, for grandma or granddad, for the older person. They’re having nutritious and nutrient dense foods.</p>
<p>So, you know, vegetable soup, so to put all the vegetables in, in the right texture that looks appealing is really important. The other thing as you get older is that your taste buds change. You can have less. Some of your taste buds start to decline. And so flavouring food more and to the way, you know, Nanna or Grandpa like it rather than the way you like it is really important. So it can be a life stage where for people, if they think, “Gee, food just doesn’t taste as good anymore, then trying out what herbs, spices and flavourings they like and using those to replace salt. </p>
<p>Because as you age you’re more prone to high blood pressure and you’re also more prone to developing diabetes. So nutrition remains important right through your life. And it’s a really important part of our social lives. </p>
<p>So I think, you know, if I had one final message, it’s: no matter what you do or how busy you are, still finding that time to cook, prepare and eat with other people is a really important way of preserving your own family’s food culture and looking after the nutrition-related health and the social well-being of everyone in your family. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-muscle-wasting-condition-sarcopenia-is-now-a-recognised-disease-but-we-can-all-protect-ourselves-119458">The muscle-wasting condition 'sarcopenia' is now a recognised disease. But we can all protect ourselves</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: And the last question I have, I wonder if – it goes into all ages, for anyone that’s trying to eat healthy and follow a healthy diet – where do superfoods fit in? I know that there may not be one answer to fit all, but I think that that’s kind of a question people grapple with it when the next fad is right in front of them. And you know, what do they do? Should they eat this? Should they go out and buy it? </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Fad diets are just so ongoing and regular that we often write articles for The Conversation about them. But you know, my thing about superfoods is that there are super foods, there’s heaps of them and they’re actually all in the supermarket. </p>
<p>And when you walk in the supermarket – this is one way supermarket design does try and help us eat healthy – you walk smack bang into the super food section and they’re right there. They don’t have packages. They don’t have labels. But it’s that wide variety of vegetables and fruit. And I think if there was one important thing to remember, when you go to the supermarket every week when you went to the supermarket or you enter a market, look at those vegetable and fruits and which one has not been in your trolley, you know, in the last couple of weeks? And invite them in. Some of the research that we’ve done shows that the variety of vegetables and fruit, but particularly the variety of vegetables, predicts your long term health care costs.</p>
<p>And we’ve shown that in a research study over 15 years on the Australian Longitudinal study on Women’s Health. And lots of the research we’ve been doing is showing that the variety of those foods that belong to the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating in the Australian Dietary Guidelines, that it’s actually those nutrient-rich foods that predict your nutrient intake and then decide whether you’re on a path for health or you’re not on a path for health. You’re on a path for poor health. </p>
<p>So going for variety in your whole grains, your vegetables, your fruits, your sources of protein, which includes meat, poultry, fish and then all the wonderful vegetarian sources and whole grains. Collectively, those things make up a healthy diet pattern. They make up you when you eat them. And then that determines whether you’re going to be healthy or less healthy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/had-pre-eclampsia-in-pregnancy-these-5-things-will-lower-your-risk-of-heart-disease-114297">Had pre-eclampsia in pregnancy? These 5 things will lower your risk of heart disease</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: Is there anything else you want to talk about that we didn’t touch on? </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: The only thing is I hope people don’t feel alone when it comes to nutrition. Go and have a look at <a href="https://nomoneynotime.com.au/">No Money, No Time</a>. Not only have we loaded that website up with lots of recipes, we’ve also loaded up with lots of information, hacks and myths. We’ve linked a lot of The Conversation articles to it. And then the other place to go for good information is go to The Conversation and type in nutrition in the search bar. And you’ll see lots of the articles that myself, my team and lots of other academics from other universities around Australia have written on food and nutrition. </p>
<p><strong>Phoebe Roth</strong>: Thank you so much, Clare, for joining us on Trust Me, I’m An Expert today. It’s been great talking to you again. </p>
<p><strong>Clare Collins</strong>: Thank you. It’s my absolute pleasure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Once you get older, the focus moves to trying not to lose your muscle tissue. So as you age, your protein requirements actually start to go up.Sunanda Creagh, Senior EditorPhoebe Roth, Deputy Health EditorSophia Morris, Editorial InternLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1311512020-02-25T18:57:51Z2020-02-25T18:57:51ZOlder and poorer: Retirement Income Review can’t ignore the changing role of home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316795/original/file-20200224-24651-e7femb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=353%2C344%2C5254%2C3388&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/worried-senior-old-couple-discuss-about-1338826637">natasaelena/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The assumption that retired people have minimal housing costs underpins the settings of our retirement incomes system. But the real state of housing for older Australians today makes it critical for the <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/review/retirement-income-review">Retirement Incomes Review</a> to look at the evidence that now challenges this assumption. </p>
<p>When announcing the <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/review/retirement-income-review/TOR">terms of reference</a>, federal government ministers <a href="http://ministers.treasury.gov.au/ministers/jane-hume-2019/media-releases/review-retirement-income-system">acknowledged</a> the critical role of the home in a good retirement by including it in the third pillar of the system, voluntary saving.</p>
<p>The fact is the soaring costs of land and housing in Australia over the past three decades have effectively destroyed the asset base on which our retirement income system relies.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316765/original/file-20200224-116128-p7ocmn.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=631&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fall-in-ageing-australians-home-ownership-rates-looms-as-seismic-shock-for-housing-policy-120651">Fall in ageing Australians' home-ownership rates looms as seismic shock for housing policy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/319">proportion</a> of home owners aged 55 to 64 years who owe money on a mortgage has more than tripled from 14% in 1990 to 47% in 2015. The rate has doubled among those aged 45 to 54, as has the ratio of mortgage debt to income (from 82% to 169%). This ratio has blown out from 72% to 132% for those in their last decade before the retirement age.</p>
<p>These debts will greatly reduce retirement incomes. The impact will only grow as successive generations take much <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-delaying-major-life-events-and-our-retirement-income-system-hasnt-caught-up-127231">longer to enter the property market</a> and live with higher housing debt much later in life than previous generations.</p>
<p>The numbers of older Australians who have never owned a home, or have <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-delaying-major-life-events-and-our-retirement-income-system-hasnt-caught-up-127231">fallen out of home ownership</a> before retirement, have also exploded. In particular, older women (55-plus) in private rental housing grew in number by an extraordinary 39% between 2006 and 2011. </p>
<p>This trend is directly linked to a 28% rise in homelessness among older Australians over the same period. Women over 55 are the <a href="https://www.agedcareguide.com.au/talking-aged-care/more-older-australians-without-a-a-place-to-call-home">fastest-growing cohort at risk of homelessness</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316770/original/file-20200224-116109-1ee72t0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Projected changes in housing tenures of older Australians between 2016 and 2031.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/fall-in-ageing-australians-home-ownership-rates-looms-as-seismic-shock-for-housing-policy-120651">Source: Rachel Ong ViforJ et al, calculations from HILDA Survey and ABS population projections</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Failing to meet retirees’ needs</h2>
<p>The housing market is clearly failing older people. Any consideration of retirement incomes must grapple urgently with the implications this will have for retirees.</p>
<p>Australian policymakers currently take a segmented approach to housing for older people. </p>
<p>The retirement village model is expensive to enter and to <a href="https://percapita.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Retirement-housing-in-Victoria-2502017.pdf">exit</a>. It’s the preferred housing model for <a href="https://www.agedcare101.com.au/retirement-living/types-retirement-living/retirement-villages">just 8%</a> of retirees. </p>
<p>“Down-sized” units often provide unsuitable multi-level accommodation and lack the amenities <a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-simple-changes-to-our-neighbourhoods-can-help-us-age-well-83962">older people need to thrive</a>. As a result, these units often <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-older-australians-dont-downsize-and-the-limits-to-what-the-government-can-do-about-it-76931">fail to attract older buyers</a>. </p>
<p>Stamp duties are another barrier.</p>
<p>As a result, many older people stay in large homes they find increasingly difficult to manage and which would better suit young families.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/half-of-over-55s-are-open-to-downsizing-if-only-they-could-find-homes-that-suit-them-130531">Half of over-55s are open to downsizing – if only they could find homes that suit them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Home’s greatest value is social</h2>
<p>To fully understand the role of home in providing a comfortable and dignified retirement, the review panel has to go beyond traditional concepts of housing as a financial asset. It must consider the full emotional and social role of home in the lives of older people. Per Capita’s Centre for Applied Policy in Positive Ageing in collaboration with The Australian Centre for Social Innovation is launching the <a href="https://percapita.org.au/our_work/home-for-good/">Home for Good</a> project today.</p>
<p>The real value of the home for older people isn’t financial, <a href="https://www.tacsi.org.au/future-of-home/importance-of-home-as-we-age/">research</a> by <a href="https://www.tacsi.org.au/">The Australian Centre for Social Innovation</a> shows. Its greatest value is as a safe and private space from which to connect with the outside world, express identity and build social relationships.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://percapita.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Mutual-Appreciation_formFINAL.pdf">research</a> by the <a href="https://percapita.org.au/our_work/centre-for-applied-policy-in-positive-ageing/">Centre for Applied Policy in Positive Ageing</a> at <a href="https://percapita.org.au/about/">Per Capita</a> confirmed older people experience home as a social as well as financial asset. Exploring models of co-housing with older women, we found even women in secure housing, such as home owners or public housing tenants, would move to other housing that offered a sense of belonging within a connected community.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316794/original/file-20200224-24690-1hck2hj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Housing that offers a sense of community belonging is highly valued.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-really-have-thought-this-cant-go-on-loneliness-looms-for-rising-numbers-of-older-private-renters-118046">'I really have thought this can’t go on': loneliness looms for rising numbers of older private renters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the economic narrative that drives policy thinking about housing in Australia, we lose sight of this intrinsic link between home and community. Policymakers are confusing an attachment to the bricks and mortar of the family home with the desire for a socially located space that suits the occupants’ age and abilities and is connected to community.</p>
<p>That older people are not emotionally wedded to the family home, but rather seeking communities of belonging, challenges traditional assumptions about ageing in place.</p>
<h2>Suitable housing choices in short supply</h2>
<p>Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (<a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/about-us/who-we-are-and-what-we-do">AHURI</a>) research has confirmed older Australians are willing to move from the family home to ideal housing. The research found a “<a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/317">housing aspiration gap</a>” between the desires of older Australians for homes in small, regional towns and policy settings that prioritise the family home.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-sort-of-housing-do-older-australians-want-and-where-do-they-want-to-live-120987">What sort of housing do older Australians want and where do they want to live?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The research doesn’t explore why traditional neighbourhoods are no longer meeting the demands of older people. However, we do know gentrification and increasing density have remodelled many suburbs. Many older people are vulnerable to isolation as families and neighbours move away and the pace and character of community life change.</p>
<p>Well-travelled and consumer-savvy baby boomers might also be more open to seeking alternatives to staying put. </p>
<p>Whatever the motives, older Australians have a clear need for more diverse housing options.</p>
<p>We need to develop a bolder vision for housing in retirement, to move beyond an economic framing of housing wealth to one that enables us to build connected and vibrant communities that support people to age well.</p>
<p>This demands we rethink models of home ownership, developing financial and legal products that support shared equity and co-ownership, and diversify development models, encouraging the housing choices for which older people are crying out.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/co-housing-works-well-for-older-people-once-they-get-past-the-image-problem-79907">Co-housing works well for older people, once they get past the image problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As many more retirees remain in rental properties into old age, we must also find ways to increase tenant control and provide secure tenure. We need uniform tenancy laws covering private rental housing across the nation. </p>
<p>And we must actively design neighbourhoods that encourage neighbourliness, combining privacy with informal networks of social and practical support, companionship and care.</p>
<p>Achieving these changes begins with accepting that every Australian has a right to secure housing. Like health care, a secure and stable home is fundamental to quality of life. It should be delivered as a universal basic service.</p>
<p>It will take significant reform before we have a housing system in which Australians of all ages and abilities live in thriving, connected and safe neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>This shift from housing as a commodity to home as a community will take time, investment and, most importantly, imagination, but the potential for Australia to build a world-standard housing system for retirees is there for the taking.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Per Capita’s Centre for Applied Policy in Positive Ageing is launching its Home for Good project in collaboration with The Australian Centre for Social Innovation today. Read more about the project <a href="http://bit.ly/home-for-good">here</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Kerry Jones, Director: Systems Initiatives, at <a href="https://www.tacsi.org.au/about/">The Australian Centre for Social Innovation</a>. The centre is generously supported by the Wicking Trust.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Dawson is the Executive Director of Per Capita. Per Capita’s Centre for Applied Policy in Positive Ageing receives funding from the Wicking Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Myfan Jordan is the Director of Social Innovation at Per Capita’s Centre for Applied Policy in Positive Ageing (CAPPA). The centre receives funding from the Wicking Trust.</span></em></p>More older Australians are carrying housing debt later in life, or not owning homes at all, but lack suitable alternatives to the family home. The result is lower incomes in retirement.Emma Dawson, Honorary Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of MelbourneMyfan Jordan, Associate, Health Ageing Research Group (HARG), La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1249262019-10-09T09:48:19Z2019-10-09T09:48:19ZPensions ruling against women fails to recognise the reality of their economic disadvantage<p>Campaigners have lost a <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/r-on-the-application-of-julie-delve-and-karen-glynn-v-the-secretary-of-state-for-work-and-pensions/">landmark legal battle</a> against the UK government’s handling of raising the state pension age for women born in the 1950s. Julie Delve, 61, and Karen Glynn, 63, supported by grassroots campaign Backto60, argued that the decision to raise the pension age from 60 to 65 discriminated against women born in the 1950s, and there was a lack of communication and insufficient notice given. But judges disagreed.</p>
<p>The judicial review was a landmark for a number of reasons. It is one of the few times a government in Europe has been taken to court for welfare policies that discriminate on account of age. It was also one of the few cases to have appeared in UK courts where the intersectional issues of age and gender discrimination were raised. That is, the idea that gender and age inequality come together to create a discriminatory experience that is more than the sum of the parts of gender and age in isolation. </p>
<p>The decision in favour of the government not only has a significant material impact <a href="https://www.backto60.com/report">on the 3.8m women</a> whose pension eligibility was affected. It also suggests there is an enduring disregard for one of the most vulnerable groups in today’s society: older women.</p>
<h2>Disadvantage and discrimination</h2>
<p>The financial insecurity of older women is a concern across the Western world. A <a href="http://www.cpa.org.uk/information/reviews/financialabuse240408%5B1%5D.pdf">report by the Australian Human Rights Commission</a> showed they were the fastest-growing cohort experiencing homelessness. The greater likelihood of older women living alone also increases their risk of financial abuse. </p>
<p>Women retire with smaller pension pots than men, and a larger proportion of their pension income is derived from government <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/822623/pensioners-incomes-series-2017-18-report.pdf">rather than occupational pension schemes</a>.</p>
<p>The disadvantage women face throughout their working lives is due to a range of factors coming together. Reductions to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2019/apr/05/gender-pay-gap-what-did-we-learn-this-year">gender pay gap</a> continue at a glacial pace. The “motherhood penalty” – aside from maternity leave – means a significant drop in earning potential over the rest of women’s working lives. Motherhood results in full-time working women earning around <a href="https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/MotherhoodPayPenalty.pdf">7% less</a> than women of the same age with the same education and occupation status. </p>
<p>Plus, <a href="http://gap.hks.harvard.edu/getting-job-there-motherhood-penalty">studies from the US</a> show mothers are rated lower than non-mothers in terms of perceived competency and are less likely to be recommended for jobs. Both harm their earnings potential. And women are also more likely to take on the majority of caring responsibilities <a href="https://carers.org/key-facts-about-carers-and-people-they-care">for elderly parents and relatives</a>. Pension pots do not take into account all of this unpaid labour.</p>
<p>There are more indirect dimensions that limit women’s earning potential but are not traditionally associated with financial insecurity in older age. For example, misdiagnosis and late diagnosis of women’s health conditions such as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378512215300906">menopause</a> and <a href="https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/sites/default/files/files/Endometriosis.pdf">endometriosis</a> can reduce women’s ability to maintain full participation in the workforce and affect pension and savings contributions. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gwao.12108">Stigma and gender-based stereotypes</a> associated with women’s bodies more generally affects their career opportunities too. </p>
<h2>Financial aftershocks</h2>
<p>Economic disadvantage also accumulates through life experiences that disproportionately hurt women’s economic situations. These can be understood as financial aftershocks. Here the event may not directly be associated with financial insecurity, but the long-term outcome is.</p>
<p>When it comes to divorce and separation, for example, guidelines are in place to ensure a fair and equitable split of private pensions. But a <a href="https://adviser.scottishwidows.co.uk/assets/literature/docs/2017-women-retirement-report.pdf">report by the insurers Scottish Widows</a> in 2017 highlighted that discussion of pension distribution is often overlooked during divorce proceedings. This tends to affect women disproportionately as men are more likely to have <a href="https://www.cii.co.uk/news-index/articles/insuring-women-s-futures-new-research-and-action-plan-launched/50515">larger amounts</a> in occupational pension schemes.</p>
<p>The average age of divorce for women in England and Wales <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/divorce/bulletins/divorcesinenglandandwales/2017">is 44 years</a> – and men in opposite-sex couples continue to be the main financial contributors to the household. This means that a number of women find themselves navigating the – often huge – economic ramifications of this kind of unexpected event. The sudden change in legislation and eligibility has compounded their level of insecurity. </p>
<p>Elsewhere, a small but valuable <a href="https://www.womensaid.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Economics-of-Abuse-Report-2019.pdf">study by the charity Women’s Aid</a> also showed that domestic abuse has significant consequences. Of the 72 women interviewed, 18% said their partner prevented them from having paid employment and 40.3% of all respondents felt that their long-term employment prospects and earnings are worse because of the abuse.</p>
<p>All of these factors are vital to consider if we are to recognise and appreciate that women’s economic position in later life is a complex story. Gendered experiences coalesce with structural patterns, which makes the ruling extremely shortsighted.</p>
<h2>The fight continues</h2>
<p>This judgement may only be the start of the Backto60 campaign seeking justice. There are alternative legal routes campaigners may choose to take. It is also notable that a motion to enact special measures to provide support for women caught in this demographic pensions trap has been signed by <a href="https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/52822/providing-financial-restitution-to-1950s-women">more than 200 MPs</a>.</p>
<p>Campaigners may choose to align with other groups such as <a href="https://www.waspi.co.uk/waspi_ask/">WASPI (Women Against State Pension Inequality)</a>. WASPI has so far taken a more moderate stance and is predominantly concerned with bridging pension arrangements or compensation as part of how equalisation is implemented.</p>
<p>The ruling is part of a bigger story about social and economic patterns of cumulative disadvantage. Yet current messages continue to imply women should simply “try harder” (or worse, should have tried harder) to secure their own financial futures and that making the pension age the same for women and men should be viewed as equality in action.</p>
<p>This is salt in the wound for women who are growing older in a society where gender-based ageism is entrenched in how we live and work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124926/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen Riach has previously received funding from Australian Super. </span></em></p>The ruling suggests there is an enduring disregard for one of the most vulnerable groups in today’s society: older women.Kathleen Riach, Professor in Management, Monash University (Australia) and Professor in Management, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1127722019-03-06T19:06:37Z2019-03-06T19:06:37ZVital conversations: older women have their say about the challenges of life in a city like Melbourne<p>Who decides what matters in the lives of voters? In the run-up to the 2018 Victorian state election, media focused on a few potential big issues of concern or interest. Newspapers featured pieces on the consequences of uncapped population growth in Victoria, particularly suburban housing sprawl and unaffordability. <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/vicar-prays-for-train-as-study-shows-1-4m-melburnians-can-t-reach-public-transport-20181025-p50bw4.html">Public transport</a> and the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/haves-and-have-nots-income-gap-widens-between-outer-and-inner-melbourne-20181026-p50c91.html">growing economic divide</a> between communities also attracted media attention.</p>
<p>Against this background, and in light of concerns raised by <a href="https://www.lmcf.org.au/getmedia/23a2ebd6-b2dc-48b1-bc81-59e1bc0f27cd/2016-03-07-LMCF-Time-of-Our-Lives-Report.pdf.aspx">previous research</a>, we wanted to engage with older women and to hear more directly from them about their lives, their experiences and the challenges they face. Specifically, we asked, what matters to older women as they grow older, as the city’s population changes and urban development continues apace?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-single-older-women-want-their-own-little-space-and-garden-to-call-home-for-a-start-84780">What do single, older women want? Their 'own little space' (and garden) to call home, for a start</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The result of our research, <a href="https://www.lmcf.org.au/vitalconversations">Vital Conversations with Older Women Living in Greater Melbourne</a>, is being launched today. It started with the assumption that there are common and interconnected factors in the lives of all women with potential impacts on their health and well-being. We understood that these factors take on different dimensions depending on age cohorts and ethnic and cultural backgrounds, as well as the health, social and economic circumstances of individual women.</p>
<p>Previously, <a href="https://www.lmcf.org.au/getattachment/4e84e093-36a1-46af-bbff-7973885fe857/VS_Report_2017_ONLINE.pdf.aspx?lang=en-AU">Vital Signs 2017</a> provided a snapshot of Greater Melbourne across a whole range of domains for people of all ages. The report indicated older women living in Greater Melbourne face a range of challenges and, in some cases, extreme disadvantage. </p>
<p>For example, the number of <a href="http://chp.org.au/rise-hidden-forms-homelessness-triggers-call-100000-homes/">older women couch surfing increased by 83%</a> between 2012 and 2017. There was a <a href="http://chp.org.au/rise-hidden-forms-homelessness-triggers-call-100000-homes/">75% increase in older women sleeping in their cars and presenting at homelessness services</a>. In addition, at least <a href="https://www.seniorsonline.vic.gov.au/-/media/seniors/files/commissioner-for-senior-victorians/ageing-is-everyones-businessweb.pdf?la=en&hash=E7A9C37DB2DEA4D1ACDA9EE2D52670C644B24635">one in ten people aged over 60 experience isolation and loneliness</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/taking-the-pulse-of-a-city-melbournes-vital-signs-84765">Taking the pulse of a city: Melbourne's Vital Signs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For all the attention given to problems associated with growing older, including the so-called financial burden of aged care to the public purse, older women have had very little opportunity to contribute their views. They need to be taken seriously about the things that matter to them, which are central to their health and well-being.</p>
<p>In all, 127 women participated in 18 facilitated group conversations. The groups were diverse. The women were between 50 and 91 years of age, lived across 22 local government areas and came from many different multicultural backgrounds. </p>
<h2>What did the women have to say?</h2>
<p>The conversations were designed to enable older women to voice their opinions and share their knowledge, experience and expertise across a range of domains. They were asked to talk about not only their own experiences but also their observations of friends and acquaintances. </p>
<p>Having meaningful and reciprocal connections with family and community was central to the women’s overall well-being. The emphasis on social inclusion and feelings of belonging was not surprising, given the huge shifts in the pace of society today. As the majority of the older women noted, people find themselves with less and less time for meaningful connections despite their obvious importance. </p>
<p>Most agreed a key challenge was to maintain their sense of social connectedness and meaningful engagement with the world around them in light of the city’s exponential neighbourhood development and urban growth. One woman observed that some found meaningful social connections in volunteering: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Volunteers actually get as much as the participants […] I have seen people like Mary who has finished work and what do you do? Your life changes and you need something to fill in that space, and I have seen them, lots
of people who come here and that’s how they contribute, so they therefore support other people but they are actually being supported themselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other challenges included:</p>
<ul>
<li>changes to their health</li>
<li>family and generational change</li>
<li>ageism and abuse</li>
<li>access to information and technology</li>
<li>threats to their financial and housing security.</li>
</ul>
<p>One woman noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I certainly think it’s hard to age well if you don’t have housing and some money. If you’ve got economic insecurity then your old age is going to be pretty crappy.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/generation-share-why-more-older-australians-are-living-in-share-houses-107183">Generation Share: why more older Australians are living in share houses</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There was also a sense of frustration about ongoing stereotypes about older women that lead to assumptions about their experiences and needs. In the words of one woman: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>How can we change the perception that we are frail and need guidance with managing our lives!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Rather than being in need of help, the women expressed a desire for autonomy, choices and respect.</p>
<p>When provided with the opportunity, older women have the capacity to voice their opinions, knowledge and experience. They want to promote their ability to be active participants in family, community and wider society. Some already juggle multiple roles:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Being in my early 60s, I am now part of that ‘sandwich generation’ where I not only care for my grandchild but I also have the responsibility for my ageing parent. That creates logistic challenges sometimes!</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-childcare-grandparents-are-the-least-stressful-option-for-mum-and-dad-98238">When it comes to childcare, grandparents are the least stressful option for mum and dad</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Voices of experience worth listening to</h2>
<p>The wide-ranging conversations indicated that many older women want to be taken seriously through engagement in public life. They are ready to contribute their experiences and ideas to policy and planning.</p>
<p>Despite the challenging trajectory of the lives of many of the participants, this research clearly demonstrated their resilience and adaptation to changing life circumstances. Women described how they have integrated creative strategies in their everyday lives to deal with the transitions and challenges of growing older in Greater Melbourne. In having these conversations, the women revealed their vast reserves of personal resources and capacity to navigate these challenges.</p>
<p>Participants also reinforced the view that a proactive approach that includes engaging with older women from across all walks of life will ensure the sharing of relevant, innovative community initiatives and ideas. For the women who contributed to the Vital Conversations study, interesting ideas included creative housing models which forge relationships between land and housing developers and all levels of government, or private rental initiatives.</p>
<p>Inclusive research that listens to the perspectives of older women has the capacity to reveal the complexity behind the statistics. In doing so we gain a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of the lives of older women and the transitions they face in a dynamic city like Melbourne.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article was co-authored by Susan Feldman, an independent researcher who produced the Vital Conversations report with Harriet Radermacher.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Harriet Radermacher received funding from Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation to conduct this research with Dr Susan Feldman. Susan is a co-author of this work. Harriet does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.</span></em></p>What matters to women as they grow older, as the city’s population changes and urban development continues apace? You don’t know unless you ask them – and they have so much to contribute.Harriet Radermacher, Adjunct Lecturer, Department of General Practice, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1090902019-02-15T10:35:07Z2019-02-15T10:35:07ZTeaching archaeology in care homes, I learned how older people are often the best students<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259030/original/file-20190214-1736-wlgi79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Out in the field.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte Roberts</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As health care improves and more people live healthier and longer lives, the elderly population of Earth will balloon. There were 66m people in the UK in mid-2017, and nearly 12m – or 18.2% – of them were <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/overviewoftheukpopulation/november2018">aged 65 years and over</a>. By 2040, that number is expected to rise to 24.2%.</p>
<p>Many of these people will spend their last years in care homes. In 2017, there were an estimated <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/care-homes-market-study-summary-of-final-report/care-homes-market-study-summary-of-final-report">11,300 care home spaces</a> for older people in the UK, but an extra 71,000 spaces may be needed by 2025. </p>
<p>Our ageing population is <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(18)30118-X/fulltext">straining the care profession</a>. In care homes, it’s challenging staff to ensure a good quality of life for people in old age, although there are various “<a href="https://www.rcot.co.uk/practice-resources/rcot-publications/downloads/living-well-care-homes">toolkits</a>” to guide carers in providing meaningful and stimulating activities.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259028/original/file-20190214-1736-1n8r1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259028/original/file-20190214-1736-1n8r1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259028/original/file-20190214-1736-1n8r1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259028/original/file-20190214-1736-1n8r1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259028/original/file-20190214-1736-1n8r1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259028/original/file-20190214-1736-1n8r1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259028/original/file-20190214-1736-1n8r1pc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Archaeology requires a patient and meticulous mind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte Roberts</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With restrictions on staff time and resources, it may only be possible for carers to engage residents with a minimum of physical and mental activities beyond basic care, despite their importance for our well-being. </p>
<p>One way to enrich the lives of people in care homes is to promote life long learning – education from “cradle to grave”. Learning isn’t the preserve of young people – giving older people in care homes a chance to learn new things can help them live more fulfilling lives.</p>
<p>I know this from nursing, my first profession. Before I became a professor of archaeology, I was taught in the 1970s that caring for people was not all about drugs and drips. Holding a patient’s hand and having meaningful conversations with them is just as much a part of the healing process as the operation they’ve just had.</p>
<p>Likewise, care homes should ideally provide people with more than the basics of care. Nursing set me up for understanding life (and death), but then I turned to a different type of caring as an academic. Nurturing students through their education has been a major part of my life, but my research has helped me use my background in nursing, and archaeology, to engage the public in promoting the value of education at all stages of life.</p>
<h2>Archaeology for the elderly</h2>
<p>The idea to introduce archaeology into the caring profession started when my mum spent the last two months of her life in a care home. I wondered about the value of introducing archaeology into that setting, believing that older people tend to have an inherent interest in the past. </p>
<p>Following my mum’s death, along with my colleague Kirsty McCarrison from Durham Museums and with funding from Durham University, we did a pilot study: “<a href="https://skeletonscience.weebly.com/skeleton-science-and-the-older-generation.html">Bringing archaeology to the older generation</a>”. We’d already done <a href="https://skeletonscience.weebly.com/">similar work to engage schoolchildren</a> with archaeology, and wanted to see if the same could be achieved in care homes with older people.</p>
<p>We spent six weeks talking to residents and some of their carers about the value of archaeology for understanding the past, how archaeologists work and some particular specialisms. These included the study of plants, animal bones, pottery and human bones. We also took them to see an archaeological excavation and two museums. They got the chance to get hands-on experience – washing animal bones and pottery and handling archaeological finds. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259027/original/file-20190214-1721-9qkxxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259027/original/file-20190214-1721-9qkxxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259027/original/file-20190214-1721-9qkxxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259027/original/file-20190214-1721-9qkxxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259027/original/file-20190214-1721-9qkxxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259027/original/file-20190214-1721-9qkxxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259027/original/file-20190214-1721-9qkxxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Group learning activities stimulate older people and help them build meaningful connections to the people around them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charlotte Roberts</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They really loved the part on human remains – when it came to discussing diseases seen in bones they talked openly about their own ailments and those of their relatives. The ages of residents involved reached 102 years, and included people with deafness, short-term memory challenges and problems with sight and mobility.</p>
<p>By focusing on <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/?id=163">human remains and disease</a> in the archaeological record, residents discovered evidence for ailments that are still familiar to older people today, such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and vitamin D deficiency. They were fascinated to know how people lived in the past and what health problems they encountered, often comforted to know that the diseases associated with old age they face today are not new. </p>
<p>If given the opportunity, people can continue to learn throughout life. As one resident said, “You never stop learning”. We have a crisis in ensuring effective and empathetic care of the increasingly older part of our society, and this work in some small part shows how we can be more ambitious in providing engaging opportunities for people in care homes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte Roberts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Learning is not just for young people – it can help older people lead fulfilling lives in their twilight years.Charlotte Roberts, Professor of Archaeology, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1071832018-12-02T18:47:24Z2018-12-02T18:47:24ZGeneration Share: why more older Australians are living in share houses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/247466/original/file-20181127-76758-h54on4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tight finances are the main reason more older Australians, especially women, are living in share houses.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/three-happy-adult-female-friends-having-270596732?src=RMuqJit23j21AjrA4HIdrA-1-89">belushi/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An increasing number of older Australians are living in share housing. A relatively new group to emerge on the share-housing scene, they are choosing to share for financial reasons, but finding unexpected social benefits. </p>
<p>Share housing has traditionally been associated with student housing and media depictions of the share house as dysfunctional, chaotic, “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Died_with_a_Felafel_in_His_Hand">He Died with a Falafel in His Hand</a>” scenarios. But a <a href="https://www.seniorshousingonline.com.au/news/360/Older-renters-on-the-rise-new-report-shows">growing number of older people are sharing housing</a>.</p>
<p>This trend is part of the growth in share housing across an increasingly broad demographic as professionals aged in their 30s, 40s and onwards continue to share house or return to share housing into later life. Generation Rent is fast becoming “Generation Share”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-on-from-home-ownership-for-generation-rent-71628">Moving on from home ownership for 'Generation Rent'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The growing trend of share households is <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/papers/Pages/tabled-paper-details.aspx?pk=68407">attributed to a combination of shifting social norms and a decline in affordable rental properties</a>. This is particularly acute in our capital cities but is also evident in regional centres. </p>
<p>An emerging group of tenants – professionals, couples, young families and students – who cannot afford to buy or rent an entire property of their own are increasingly turning to shared occupancy as a way to afford housing. <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/papers/Pages/tabled-paper-details.aspx?pk=68407">Home owners are also noted as a group for whom shared occupancy has benefits</a> by generating extra income for mortgage repayments. </p>
<h2>Tight budgets affect all ages</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649365.2018.1466355?scroll=top&needAccess=true">My research</a> on share housing across all age groups shows it’s mainly driven by financial constraints. In older age, the experience of this is gendered. Although older men are sharing, women in particular are more vulnerable to significant financial constraints in old age.</p>
<p>Women are the <a href="https://www.baptistcareaustralia.org.au/news/article/the-most-rapidly-growing-group-of-homeless-australians-its-not-who-you-expect/">fastest-growing group at risk of homelessness in Australia</a>. Many have limited superannuation to draw upon due to time out of the workforce to raise children or manage the home. This means the ramifications of the gender wage gap are particularly visible in older life – to quote one participant, “a man is not a superannuation”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spirals-and-circles-snakes-and-ladders-why-womens-super-is-complex-103763">Spirals and circles, snakes and ladders. Why women's super is complex</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A common scenario is people falling out of home ownership after divorce or a relationship breakdown. Without the family home and with limited material assets, share housing is one of a diminishing set of options for living affordably and securely. </p>
<h2>Share housing has its challenges</h2>
<p>Moving into share housing in later life can be an adjustment. Many older people are in share housing for the first time in their life, having previously owned their own home. </p>
<p>There are obvious social challenges inherent in this situation. These include learning to negotiate domestic spaces in new ways. And certainly many are vulnerable to being exploited by unscrupulous flatmates, head tenants, or landlords.</p>
<p>Similar to share-housing experiences among younger groups, older participants mentioned occasional household conflicts and were aware of the need for personal space. </p>
<h2>But there are also social benefits</h2>
<p>However, some also reflect positively on the social value of share housing. This has been an unexpected benefit for many of them. At <a href="https://www.agedcareguide.com.au/talking-aged-care/exploring-the-link-between-loneliness-social-isolation-and-mental-health-in-seniors">an age when isolation and loneliness increase</a>, this is particularly important. </p>
<p>Older residents value the social aspects and the new friendships that sometimes develop in share houses. Flow-on effects of this include an increase in their sense of safety and security, knowing that they are not alone should anything untoward happen. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/co-housing-works-well-for-older-people-once-they-get-past-the-image-problem-79907">Co-housing works well for older people, once they get past the image problem</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Long-term policy challenges loom</h2>
<p>Although share housing in older age has social benefits, its rise should prompt us to reflect critically on Australia’s housing market as well as rethinking retirement policy. Share housing is directly correlated to declining housing affordability. </p>
<p>These trends highlight <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-to-triple-its-social-housing-by-2036-this-is-the-best-way-to-do-it-105960">systematic disinvestment in public and social housing</a> for the past 30 years as well as a market that has encouraged housing as a site of investment. The result is a system that has produced housing as a site of profit rather than housing as a site of home. </p>
<p>For older people, the situation is particularly complex. Australia’s retirement policies promote home ownership as the pathway to a financially secure old age. That leaves the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-secure-and-affordable-housing-is-an-increasing-worry-for-age-pensioners-69350">growing number of older Australians who don’t own their own home</a> to experience increased financial stress. </p>
<p>The Australian Dream of the owner-occupied home is quickly becoming that – <a href="https://theconversation.com/ideas-of-home-and-ownership-in-australia-might-explain-the-neglect-of-renters-rights-104849">a dream rather than reality for many Australians</a>. The cracks are starting to show. As people fall out of home ownership and the younger generations doubt they’ll ever own a home – they’re not called Generation Rent for nothing – Generation Share will present significant challenges for policy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/home-ownership-foundations-are-being-shaken-and-the-impacts-will-be-felt-far-and-wide-91664">Home ownership foundations are being shaken, and the impacts will be felt far and wide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophia Maalsen received funding from the IB Fell Trust for this research. </span></em></p>While share houses are more a matter of financial necessity than choice, many older Australians are discovering it has unexpected social benefits for them.Sophia Maalsen, I.B. Fell Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1038422018-09-26T20:16:16Z2018-09-26T20:16:16ZLife as an older renter, and what it tells us about the urgent need for tenancy reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237881/original/file-20180925-149973-ln0972.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5386%2C3587&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Uncapped rent increases and 'no grounds' evictions leave older women particularly at risk of substandard housing conditions or even homelessness.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-crying-senior-adult-woman-kitchen-133019822?irgwc=1&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=TinEye&utm_source=77643&utm_term=">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The New South Wales government has <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/nsw-renters-set-to-see-biggest-shakeup-of-states-rental-laws-20180920-h15mq6-765151/">introduced</a> a <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/bill/files/3558/First%20Print.pdf">bill</a> to reform the Residential Tenancies Act. This act sets out the rights and responsibilities of landlords and tenants in private rental accommodation in NSW.</p>
<p>The bill’s proposed limit on rent increases to one in every 12 months is essential, as are the proposed minimum standards for rental accommodation. However, my <a href="https://dremmapower.com/older-women-and-home/">ongoing research</a> with single older women renting in Sydney points to an urgent need for a cap on the value of rent increases and for an end to “no grounds” eviction. Victoria <a href="https://www.domain.com.au/news/new-victorian-rental-laws-how-15-million-renters-will-be-affected-20180911-h157ji-763296/">adopted these measures</a> earlier this month.</p>
<p>Reform is essential. Growing numbers of Australians rent their housing and increasing proportions are expected to rent long-term. This makes it essential that private rental housing meets the need that every person has for a secure and affordable home.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-open-letter-on-rental-housing-reform-103825">An open letter on rental housing reform</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>It’s getting harder for older renters</h2>
<p>It is getting harder for older renters to find adequate, appropriate and secure housing. Older women – the focus of my work – are at particular risk. This is due to longer life expectancy, lower incomes across the life course, and less access to benefits like superannuation. Women also experience a greater loss of income and housing standard than men do after relationship breakdown, and are at greater risk of domestic violence.</p>
<p>Their stories point to the role of flaws in the Residential Tenancies Act in compounding housing insecurity.</p>
<h2>Rising rents add to hardship</h2>
<p>Rising rents were a problem for nearly all women I spoke with. They depleted women’s budgets, leaving little money to buy food or pay for utilities. Many relied on local charities for food and help to pay energy bills.</p>
<p>One woman described how she would add protein to her meal by buying a single chicken breast, slicing it thinly and freezing each piece separately to be defrosted over the next week or so. Another relied on vegetables the local greengrocer bundled and discounted before throwing out. </p>
<p>In winter, when heating bills mounted, she relied on a local church with a weekly food pantry. This food, donated by local supermarkets and community members, was frequently past its “best before” date. As a low-paid community worker living in an area with a significant number of disadvantaged families, she collected food alongside her clients.</p>
<p>Two women coped by moving into their cars. They subsisted on tins of food that they could hide in the car. At night they kept themselves safe by parking in familiar locations.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-and-more-older-australians-will-be-homeless-unless-we-act-now-87685">More and more older Australians will be homeless unless we act now</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Living with substandard conditions</h2>
<p>Rent rises also made it difficult to find appropriate housing. Affordable housing was often substandard. Many had difficulties getting landlords to agree to repairs.</p>
<p>One woman described how her rented unit began leaking. The leak was severe and lasted for nearly two years. In this time she lived with increasing mould and lost access to nearly 40% of her home. She sought repairs from the landlord, but only cautiously, because she was afraid of eviction.</p>
<p>When the leak was eventually fixed her rent went up 20%. That left her with only A$30 a week after rent, essential bills and transport. She couldn’t afford food and relied on local charities until she found cheaper housing in a distant, transport-poor suburb.</p>
<p>Another described a similar leak:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When it rained the water would come straight down into the doorway. And that was the only way you could get into the house […] it was in the house and even in the bedroom.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite this the owner increased the rent. The real estate agent notified her of the increase by letter, but distanced herself from repair requests when confronted in person stating: “Well, we can’t do anything [to fix the property] until the owner says we can.”</p>
<p>The agent helped the landlord to make more money from their investment, while illegally blocking this woman’s entitlements to secure and usable property. The impact on her capacity to take care of herself was significant. Living with the leak risked her health. However, challenging the landlord – pushing them to repair the leak – risked eviction.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/rental-insecurity-why-fixed-long-term-leases-arent-the-answer-73114">Rental insecurity: why fixed long-term leases aren't the answer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Rethink the value of rental housing</h2>
<p>These stories show the need to rethink how we value and regulate private rental housing. It is time that we recognise the fundamental role that housing plays in our ability to meet basic needs – for shelter, warmth, food and above all a sense of security and home.</p>
<p>When housing is too expensive, unsafe or inadequate, our capacity to meet our care needs deteriorates and our health suffers. For women in my research their capacity to age in place – and even to remain housed – was challenged.</p>
<p>This is not good for tenants or landlords. Although popular wisdom suggests tenants and landlords have different interests, they in fact have very similar concerns: both benefit from secure tenancies and rental properties that are well maintained and cared for.</p>
<p>The proposed amendments to the act are a good starting point.</p>
<p>Restrictions on the number of rent increases in a year are essential. However, the women in my research struggle not just because of the number of rent increases they face. They find themselves in precarious situations because of the size of the increases, which in some cases left them unable to afford necessities like food.</p>
<p>Minimum housing standards are also essential. The women in my research cannot begin to maintain their health or age well at home if their home leaks or does not meet other basic standards.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dickensian-approach-to-residential-tenants-lingers-in-australian-law-65146">Dickensian approach to residential tenants lingers in Australian law</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But perhaps more pressing is the need to end no grounds evictions. For women in my research, repair requests carried the risk of eviction. This left many afraid to ask for repairs. They lived in unhealthy and unsafe housing rather than risk eviction in a market with few affordable options.</p>
<p>Landlords in many areas can readily replace tenants. And an evicted older woman can easily end up living in her car. </p>
<p>Ending no grounds evictions will have no impact on landlords who do the right thing. They will still be able to terminate a lease on reasonable grounds such as renovating or moving into the property. It would, however, help put an end to retaliatory evictions, which in turn would support efforts to maintain minimum housing standards.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is based on research findings presented in a talk by the author at an event, Fair for Everybody: Reforming Renting in NSW, hosted at Parliament House on Wednesday.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The research for this article was supported by an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (Grant DE150100861).
</span></em></p>Proposed changes to NSW rental tenancy law are an improvement, but do not end the excessive rent increases and “no grounds” evictions that put renters – and older women in particular – at risk.Emma Power, Senior Research Fellow, Geography and Urban Studies, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/988602018-07-12T20:07:56Z2018-07-12T20:07:56ZA silent career killer – here’s what workplaces can do about menopause<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226861/original/file-20180710-122250-cepbcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In one study, only a quarter of respondents felt able to discuss their menopausal symptoms with their manager.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-mature-female-manager-wearing-eyeglasses-406004056?src=KbB_G--7rSPjHAKIXIFwtA-2-77">stockfour/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More and more Australian women are facing a silent career killer. It can increase their dissatisfaction with work, their absenteeism and their intention to quit their jobs. Menopause is one of the last great taboo subjects in the workplace but its impacts are great – and it’s time we talked about it. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.menopause.org.au/hp/information-sheets/185-what-is-menopause">Menopause typically occurs in women around 51 years of age</a>. Prior to this women also pass through a period of peri-menopause where symptoms are apparent. These include fatigue, hot flushes, sleep disruption, irregular and unpredictable bleeding, urinary issues and mood swings. In all, menopausal symptoms generally last from four to eight years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chemical-messengers-how-hormones-change-through-menopause-56921">Chemical messengers: how hormones change through menopause</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This directly relates to the workforce in Australia because the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/4125.0%7ESep%202017%7EMain%20Features%7EEconomic%20Security%7E4">participation of women over 45 years of age is steadily increasing</a>, particularly in the 55-64 age group. Between 1999 and 2012, this group’s workforce participation rate <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4102.0">grew by a staggering 23%</a>.</p>
<p>While workplaces in Australia have slowly incorporated the needs of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers into their cultures, those at the other end of the journey are neither acknowledged nor understood.</p>
<h2>What do we know about menopause and work?</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://womenworkandthemenopause.com/menopause-and-the-workplace">large study</a> of women over 40 working at Australian universities was conducted in 2013-14. It’s one of the few to examine this issue locally.</p>
<p>This research showed that menopause did not necessarily affect job performance. But there was a strong link between the severity of symptoms and reduced engagement and satisfaction with work – as well as a higher intention to quit work. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, these reactions can have negative impacts on career aspirations. A 2013 report, <a href="https://www.dca.org.au/research/project/older-women-matter">Older Women Matter: Harnessing the talents of Australia’s older female workforce</a>, examined the issue of attracting and retaining older women in Australian workplaces. While not directly about menopause, this report argued that employers could reap significant benefits by examining their strategies and policies for employees in this demographic.</p>
<p>Studies overseas, particularly in the UK, have more comprehensively explored the link between workplace performance and menopause. It is generally agreed that women are often able to conceal their symptoms and manage their workloads. Yet they often do so at their own personal expense. </p>
<p><a href="http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/2899/1/Talbert_Dissertation-Complete.pdf">One study</a> found that only a quarter of respondents felt comfortable enough to discuss their menopausal symptoms with their line managers. Most believed it was a personal and private matter. Other reasons for non-disclosure included the belief that it had no impact on their work, and their manager being male and being embarrassed.</p>
<p>The consensus then is that this important group of employees need support so that menopausal symptoms can be discussed and managed. That in turn means employees can be retained and developed. But how do employers make this happen?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-menopause-dreaded-derided-and-seldom-discussed-85281">The menopause: dreaded, derided and seldom discussed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A case study – Nottinghamshire Police</h2>
<p>When Detective Constable Keely Mansell was faced with <a href="https://jeanhailes.org.au/health-a-z/menopause/premature-early-menopause">early onset menopause</a> at the age of 38, she was at a loss about how to manage her symptoms in her male-dominated workplace. She left the UK police force for a short time. After finding a treatment that worked for her, she returned to work and developed Nottinghamshire Police’s <a href="https://www.nottinghamshire.police.uk/document/menopause-managers-guide-pg50">Menopause Managers Guide</a>, which was introduced in 2017. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226862/original/file-20180710-122259-rcqrm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=701&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Breaking the workplace taboo on talking about and managing menopause symptoms will improve employee satisfaction and retention, to the benefit of all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/smiling-female-aged-company-executive-team-1032686050?src=KbB_G--7rSPjHAKIXIFwtA-1-2">fizkes/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The aim of the policy is to “create an environment where women feel confident enough to raise issues about their symptoms and ask for adjustments at work”. The guide explains menopause in simple language and includes information about diagnosis and treatment options.</p>
<p>The policy suggests a range of practical steps to support women going through menopause. These including: increased frequency of breaks; access to toilet facilities; adjustment to uniform and workspaces; and flexible working arrangements. </p>
<p>Nottinghamshire Police is not the only UK employer responding to this emerging workplace issue. Other organisations seeking to support and educate staff through menopause policies are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/marks-spencer-recruiting-women-from-different-backgrounds">Marks & Spencer</a>, <a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/hr/policies/health/menopause">Leicester University</a>, <a href="https://menopauseintheworkplace.co.uk/case-studies/menopause-severn-trent/">Severn Trent Water</a> and energy company <a href="https://www.eonenergy.com/about-eon/media-centre/eon-becomes-britains-first-menopause-friendly-energy-company/">E.ON</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/three-reasons-employers-need-to-recognise-the-menopause-at-work-82543">Three reasons employers need to recognise the menopause at work</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What can Australian organisations do?</h2>
<p>Careers need not be stilted or threatened by the impact of menopause. Even though there is no “typical” menopause, some easy and inexpensive workplace adjustments can be made to help with symptoms. </p>
<p>Most importantly, an open dialogue needs to be established so employees aren’t placed under further stress by trying to conceal menopause symptoms. This may be done through workplace and managerial training and health promotion programs. </p>
<p>In addition, simple physical changes to the workplace can be made. Examples include providing easy access to fans and/or temperature control for women experiencing hot flushes, and providing adequate toilet and personal spaces for affected women to seek short-term refuge. Flexible working hours and other arrangements can also help with managing symptoms, including fatigue from sleep disruption.</p>
<p>Changes like these assist in meeting the organisation’s occupational health and safety obligations. Just as crucially, they are instrumental in communicating the workplace’s commitment to its employees’ health and well-being. This in turn will improve employee retention and satisfaction, far beyond the time when menopausal symptoms are present. </p>
<p>Indeed, researchers are working to further understand the impacts on the careers and progression of women in Australia with a view to increasing awareness of the ramifications of menopause in the workplace.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth McPhail does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Workforce participation rates for older women have increased greatly, but most workplaces have yet to realise the benefits of helping them to manage the impacts of menopause.Ruth McPhail, Head of Department of Employment Relations & Human Resources, and Professor, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/911662018-02-08T16:30:18Z2018-02-08T16:30:18ZWe asked older women what they want from fashion – here’s why the industry needs to listen<p>Debbie Harry led <a href="http://www.blondie.net">Blondie</a> in their Pollinator tour last year, fronting the band at the age of 72 wearing Vin and Omi’s <a href="https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/blondie-backs-experimental-eco-fashion-in-london-show/2017091225833">“Stop Fucking The Planet”</a> range. As well as raising awareness of the need for sustainable design, Harry also challenged ideas about fashion and ageing. </p>
<p>Thankfully, older women are gradually becoming a more familiar part of fashion, with mature models such as <a href="https://www.instagram.com/daphneselfe/?hl=en">Daphne Selfe</a> (89), <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/people/model-jan-de-villeneuve-stays-stylish-aged-72/">Jan de Villeneuve</a> (72), and <a href="https://www.wmagazine.com/story/lauren-hutton-calvin-klein-underwear-model">Lauren Hutton</a> (74) regularly featuring both on the runway and in advertising campaigns.</p>
<p>Increased interest in the <a href="http://www.advanced.style/">“advanced style”</a> of the world’s ageing population is no coincidence and is fuelled by the potential spending power of these baby boomer <a href="https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/bright-old-things-silver-spend">“bright old things”</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://academic.mintel.com/display/835047/">According to Mintel</a>, the UK womenswear market is faced with a declining youth population and an acceleration in the number of 55- to 64-year-olds regularly buying clothes. But what is particularly significant about those born between 1946 and 1964 is their involvement in the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s, which redefined fashion in terms of youth and sexuality and led to the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309820211_Fashioning_the_sixties_fashion_narratives_of_older_women">birth of consumer culture as we know it</a>. </p>
<h2>Self-expression</h2>
<p>For many of these individuals, wearing and making fashionable clothing has been an inherent form of self expression, and it remains just as important now as they enter retirement. Twiggy is a style icon for many women from this generation and in 2016 celebrated her 50th year in fashion. At 68, she still models for <a href="http://www.marksandspencer.com/c/style-and-living/twiggy-50-years">Marks and Spencer</a>.</p>
<p>Yet despite this astute marketing and ranges by other high street brands, such as Kin by John Lewis and COS, our research demonstrates that the industry must still do more to engage with its older consumers.</p>
<p>Emotional Fit is an ongoing, user-centered <a href="http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/31007/1/PubSub8591_Townsend.pdf">research project</a> that began in 2015, following an approach by a group of mature women. The women asked Nottingham Trent University’s School of Art and Design what higher design education was doing about fashion for older women, something they had heard so much about but couldn’t find much evidence of on the high street.</p>
<p>As a result, a creative fashion enquiry was initiated between academics from the school and the group, who were all aged 55 and over. This unique collaboration between researchers in fashion, textile design and creative pattern cutting, and over 40 female participants from Nottingham, is developing a new, more inclusive approach to fashion that considers the stylistic <em>and</em> emotional needs of older consumers. </p>
<p>One of <a href="http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/31007/1/PubSub8591_Townsend.pdf">the study’s</a> key findings is that mature women not only feel overlooked within the predominantly youth-oriented world of <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-may-not-be-possible-to-slow-down-fast-fashion-so-can-the-industry-ever-be-sustainable-82168">“fast fashion”</a> but that their knowledge of making and wearing fashion is also ignored and undervalued by both designers and retailers.</p>
<p>And so the research team, led by Dr Katherine Townsend with Dr Ania Sadkowska, Juliana Sissons, Karen Harrigan and research assistant Katherine West, involved the study participants in the creation of a series of fashion prototypes.</p>
<h2>The results</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205668/original/file-20180209-51719-19ycl3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205668/original/file-20180209-51719-19ycl3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205668/original/file-20180209-51719-19ycl3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205668/original/file-20180209-51719-19ycl3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205668/original/file-20180209-51719-19ycl3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205668/original/file-20180209-51719-19ycl3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205668/original/file-20180209-51719-19ycl3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the items co-designed during the research project.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rebecca Lewis</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We held a series of practical workshops and semi-structured interviews, during which the women expressed their expectations of fashionable clothing and told stories about their favourite items, reiterating the fact that <a href="http://fashionrevolution.org/resources/fanzine2/">“loved clothes last”</a>. </p>
<p>They were actively involved in realising some of the designs by mapping their preferences onto the garments we created. As earlier research <a href="http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/piller.html">noted</a>, this encourages a particular interaction with the potential customer, who becomes “integrated into the value creation” by contributing as a designer in the process.</p>
<p>Selecting fabrics and trying on partially completed garments proved to be particularly informative, revealing insights into the women’s embodied fashion knowledge, and resulted in two short films, including: <a href="https://vimeo.com/218548414">Trying it On</a> made in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University’s Jim Boxall.</p>
<p>The film shows the women modelling the garments they helped create at a public event, the Emotional Fit: Fashion Salon, staged in association with <a href="http://fashionrevolution.org/">Fashion Revolution</a> and held at Antenna, Nottingham.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205128/original/file-20180206-88795-9u9u6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1059&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Participants modelling garments at the Emotional Fit salon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rebecca Lewis.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The garments, combining bespoke textile prints with geometric silhouettes, were designed to accommodate a wide range of different body shapes, placing emphasis on “style and shape” as opposed to “size and fit”. </p>
<p>The women requested high quality, ethically sourced materials, so we made coordinating separates in silk, viscose, wool and Irish linen. We also applied a zero waste approach, using the entire fabric width, with any waste made into personalised details. This is in line with what Orsola De Castro describes as <a href="https://suitcasemag.com/trailblazers/sense-sustainability-orsola-de-castro">“the new creativity, the new solution-based movement”</a>. </p>
<p>At the end of the salon, group coordinator Helen Brady-Scott quoted <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/455515-you-can-be-gorgeous-at-thirty-charmimg-at-forty-and">Coco Chanel</a> to reflect how the engagement had made the women feel: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You can be gorgeous at 30, charming at 40, and irresistible for the rest of your life.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Much progress has been made, but it’s clear that fashion could be doing more to support sustainability by engaging with its older customers – and making them feel irresistible for longer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As Coco Chanel said: ‘You can be gorgeous at 30, charming at 40, and irresistible for the rest of your life.’Katherine Townsend, Reader in Fashion and Textile Crafts, Nottingham Trent UniversityAnia Sadkowska, Lecturer in Fashion, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/876852017-11-23T19:11:44Z2017-11-23T19:11:44ZMore and more older Australians will be homeless unless we act now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/195390/original/file-20171120-18547-11eyjxc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A homeless man sleeping rough in the city. More and more older people will be homeless on current trends.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderferret/382595491/in/photolist-zNUiZ-k9VH1-eeYPgu-a52yDz-4rycrv-92KAH5-8e8ru-Wcjg6-kGKW-7N9rTf-7NWxTq-A5oQt7-2qWFq-qyYVYW-phHA9G-8WVpL-Xgjr6-KfHnw-HYNGHo-KjBEu-b8Q62-9D1tQf-4hS6QN-4CYFqX-wtBom-8yWCjZ-kGhhdc-TJij8n-kufpY7-anUXRe-bwxqZo-vAPgu7-dG63mV-xsuSu-8m5NZm-8wUzxG-dGQHjP-9D1tUQ-63ozqx-McdGa-7jevcK-8ruKk-yLs2vN-4tpRj1-7R75Q-mzMFtr-DanoC-9hmCRG-kGhe6k-fq96Nh">flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the most pressing challenges older Australians face is finding secure accommodation with suitable amenities. And as the numbers of older Australians grow, the pressure to provide housing that meets their needs is increasing. We may be facing a crisis of ageing homelessness in coming years.</p>
<p>A new <a href="https://www.missionaustralia.com.au/news-blog/news-media/mission-australia-report-shows-homelessness-is-a-growing-concern-for-older-australians">report</a> from Mission Australia has called on all levels of government to act immediately on the critical shortage of appropriate housing and support services for older Australians at risk of homelessness. </p>
<p>A look at the trajectory of Australia’s ageing population gives a clear sense of the urgency of this issue. Today, <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0%7E2016%7EMain%20Features%7EAgeing%20Population%7E14">16% of our population</a> is over 65 years of age. By 2101, <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/facts-and-figures/ageing-australia">25% of Australians</a> are likely to be over 65. People over 55 already make up around 17% of the homeless population – and this figure is likely to grow.</p>
<p>Affordable housing and related aged care services are already in short supply. Evidence of this is the increasing numbers of older homeless people <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/homelessness-services/specialist-homelessness-services-2015-16/contents/client-groups-of-interest/older-clients">seeking help</a> from specialised homeless services. </p>
<h2>Why are older people more at risk?</h2>
<p>Older Australians face the same risks of falling into homelessness as everyone else. But they also face extra challenges related to ageing. These include physical and cognitive changes, reduced earning capacity and family changes, on top of the lack of suitable housing alternatives. All these factors can put older people at greater risk of becoming homeless. </p>
<p>Self-funded accommodation is simply not an option for many older Australians. Many depend on social security or social housing to cover accommodation and living expenses. <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/enablers/payment-rates-age-pension">Age Pension payments are modest</a> – a maximum of A$407 per week for single people and A$613.60 for couples – which might be enough if people have adequate superannuation and own their home by the time they retire. Many do not.</p>
<p>The combination of low incomes and rising living costs is a significant factor in older people’s homelessness. The supply of private rental housing or social housing for people on very low incomes is limited. </p>
<p>Even if social housing is available, many of the complexes are poorly maintained or have mixed tenancy. This can cause older people to feel intimidated and isolated. </p>
<p>As rents continue to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-01/sydney-rental-prices-climb-as-more-new-units-are-built/8228872">climb</a>, private renting is beyond the means of many older people. Age discrimination further narrows the restricted market of affordable housing. Landlords may prefer tenants who are receiving a regular income from employment. </p>
<p>People with health problems, including mobility and cognitive impairment, and who require greater support may become unable to maintain their present living arrangements. However, they may also be unable to find or afford accommodation that caters for their needs. </p>
<p>Older people who have suffered elder abuse, in particular financial abuse or failed family accommodation arrangements, are especially vulnerable. <a href="https://theconversation.com/global/topics/elder-abuse-5798">Elder abuse</a> is commonly inflicted by close family members. This can both impoverish an individual and isolate them from family support networks. </p>
<h2>Which groups are most vulnerable?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/ageing-women-in-financial-strife-the-new-face-of-australian-homelessness/news-story/22d4462e281e2d3b4f6b43b243d85406">Older women</a> are especially at risk. Many women who have raised children and not been in secure paid employment have little or no superannuation in later years. This leaves them with reduced capacity to support themselves, particularly if they have fled family violence. </p>
<p>Traditionally, support services are aimed at younger women with children. Mission Australia has called for investment in housing tailored to the needs of older women experiencing <a href="http://www.ownnsw.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ItCouldBeYou.pdf">family violence</a>. </p>
<p>Mission Australia has also identified disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders among the homeless population. Overcrowded housing is a key factor here. In 2011, <a href="http://apo.org.au/system/files/40448/apo-nid40448-20316.pdf">74% of Indigenous people</a> were living in severely overcrowded dwellings.</p>
<h2>What needs to be done to reduce homeless?</h2>
<p>Significant funding is certainly needed to overcome the ever-growing problem of homelessness in our ageing population. Older Australians are not a homogeneous group. Housing options need to be provided that meet the needs of people with different financial, social, physical and cognitive capabilities. </p>
<p>Funding is also need to put support in place not only to allow people to move from homelessness to permanent accommodation, but also to counter the factors that lead to homelessness. These include the shortage of affordable rental accommodation, lack of accessible support networks, and financial insecurity for older people on low incomes. </p>
<p>Alternative housing options could include <a href="http://www.seniorresource.com/hcf.htm">congregate housing</a>. In this model, tenants live in units but support staff are on site. Another possible model is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/gerontologist/article/51/3/406/560563">campus housing</a> where villages contain housing with different levels of care. If tenants’ level of care changes, they can move to other housing in the village. </p>
<p>Alternative housing for those who are more independent include <a href="http://www.homelessnessnsw.org.au/news/older-womens-studio-development-project">share housing models</a>, which aim to provide low-cost accommodation to homeless women. Government financial incentives for <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-can-we-best-design-housing-for-australias-ageing-population-50304">alternative housing</a> such as granny flats and co-ownership would also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/20/housing-affordability-is-not-just-about-youth-15000-seniors-are-living-on-the-streets">help ease the demand</a> on government-run housing facilities.</p>
<p>The need for appropriate housing for our ageing population is urgent. The rise in homelessness among older people is sad but clear. Governments must prioritise research and implementation of a range of accommodation options to better prepare Australians for the challenges of finding suitable housing as they get older.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87685/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Teresa Somes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The rising number of older Australians is exposing the shortage of housing options and services to meet their needs, putting them at increasing risk of homelessness.Teresa Somes, Associate Lecturer, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/847802017-10-22T19:02:25Z2017-10-22T19:02:25ZWhat do single, older women want? Their ‘own little space’ (and garden) to call home, for a start<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189483/original/file-20171010-25643-16gjhrj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Older women valued a secure private space of their own with, ideally, a small garden.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/relaxed-senior-woman-sitting-on-bench-154468865?src=gGh-4YgH7G-z20fQjiY7Mg-1-2">Jacob Lund/shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The “great Australian dream” of owning your own home is rapidly proving to be an illusion for many in the early 21st century. </p>
<p>In an environment of exceedingly high house prices, groups who don’t have secure, long-term employment are at risk of homelessness, particularly as they age. Single, older women are one such group at <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-07/older-women-become-hidden-face-of-homelessness/8782816">increasing risk of being homeless</a>.</p>
<p>While housing policy has neglected this area of concern, recent work is beginning to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea_Sharam/publication/280245079_Voices_of_midlife_women_facing_housing_insecurity/links/55af583208aed9b7dcddb7f6.pdf">highlight this gap</a>. Most research has been done in metropolitan areas, but women living in regional Australia merit attention too.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.07.003">our study</a> of 47 older women who do not own homes in regional New South Wales nearly all were living on low incomes. Their housing ranged from dingy hotel rooms and makeshift sheds or shacks to rundown flats or housing in regional towns. Only a few lived in reasonable circumstances, including community housing.</p>
<p>We discovered that the women had clear ideas about what sort of housing would suit them as they age. For all of them, stability and security of tenure were priorities. Other aspects of what these women wanted were perhaps more surprising and differed from research findings on older women living in cities. </p>
<h2>Why is housing a problem for these women?</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14036096.2012.746944">recent article</a>, we argued that women’s work and family roles in the last century left them economically disadvantaged. Most had interrupted employment histories, lower status and lower-paid jobs than men. </p>
<p><a href="https://aifs.gov.au/publications/consequences-divorce-financial-living-standards-i">Research</a> shows that women who don’t have a partner generally suffer greater insecurity when they can no longer work, particularly if they don’t own their own homes. </p>
<p>Many single women now have to contend with a rental market in Australia in which the laws tend to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-renters-making-housing-more-affordable-is-just-the-start-76263">skewed in favour of landlords</a>. Leases are typically short-term and tenants have <a href="https://theconversation.com/rental-insecurity-why-fixed-long-term-leases-arent-the-answer-73114">little security</a> of tenure. An overheated housing market, which encourages <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-housing-issues-should-the-budget-tackle-this-is-what-our-experts-say-73751">speculative investment</a>, makes this insecurity worse. </p>
<p>To make matters worse, the <a href="https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=388386634519941;res=IELBUS">availability of public housing</a> has fallen.</p>
<h2>What are their housing priorities?</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.07.003">Our study</a> of older women in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rivers">Northern Rivers</a> region of NSW found that only two participants had never had a partner. All but four had borne children. </p>
<p>Their shared desire for stability and security of tenure is understandable, given most had very disrupted housing histories.</p>
<p>Many worried about what would happen to them. Elizabeth said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It would be just lovely to be somewhere where I know I could stay until I died.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Agnes thought she might end up “in an old school bus on somebody’s property”.</p>
<p>The women also expressed a strong desire for privacy and independence, which many of them called their “own space”. They wanted to come and go as they please. For instance, Anne just wants her “own little space to be private”.</p>
<p>Many women linked their desire for security, privacy and independence to their age and their gender. Jane, for example, associated wanting her own kitchen space with being a woman.</p>
<p>In contrast to some <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrea_Sharam/publication/280245079_Voices_of_midlife_women_facing_housing_insecurity/links/55af583208aed9b7dcddb7f6.pdf">research</a> on this group in cities, our participants insisted they did not wish to share housing with other women. They spoke quite vehemently at times – Susan would rather live in a tent than share housing.</p>
<p>What was surprising was that nearly all the women wanted some sort of garden, even if it was a tiny space. This was almost as important as their need for security and independence. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/189485/original/file-20171010-25634-1o8l88t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A few women said they would rather be homeless that give up their pet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-older-woman-siamese-kitten-arms-249259948?src=IeSlhoqsHHffz14uBrGzzA-1-18">Daria Chichkareva/shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, the women wanted to have space to accommodate their grandchildren and pets. They saw their role as being able to provide a base for their family and to nurture their grandchildren. This seems to reflect more traditional notions of women’s caring responsibilities, which were more widespread last century when these women were young.</p>
<p>We know that pets play a significant role in <a href="http://www.center4research.org/benefits-pets-human-health/">fostering mental and emotional health</a> in older people. We also know that describing pets as family members is part of a <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14036090600813760">broader trend in Australia</a>. In our study, one participant minded the “grand-dogs” when her daughter was away.</p>
<p>A few women even said they would rather be homeless that give up their pet, such was their attachment. But, for many, lack of secure tenure and independence meant they were denied this source of emotional security.</p>
<p>The Victorian government has recently announced <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-08/victorian-tenants-allowed-pets-in-rental-properties/9027000">changes to tenancy laws</a> that will allow renters to keep pets, as well as improve security of tenure. This is a welcome development for Victorians. It must be hoped it spreads to other states.</p>
<h2>Preferences have policy implications</h2>
<p>Our study emphasises the housing preferences of a regional cohort. Though the desire for secure tenure may be widespread, some preferences such as the expressed need for a garden may reflect regional values. </p>
<p>If the housing problems that many single, older women experience are to be solved, housing policymakers need to be informed by research about what makes these women’s lives meaningful and productive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84780/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Finding secure affordable housing is a problem for older women across Australia. But new research finds women in regional areas have different priorities from those in the cities.Yvonne Hartman, Lecturer in Politics and Sociology, Southern Cross UniversitySandy Darab, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Southern Cross UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/829152017-09-28T03:02:58Z2017-09-28T03:02:58ZBaby boomer women make up for lost study time and head back to university<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186528/original/file-20170919-16703-1x0gauy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We should encourage older women to see academic study as a fruitful, challenging way forward, regardless of age.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Statistics from the Department of Education and Training show a steady cohort of baby boomer postgraduates, mostly women, enrolling at university at the age of 60 or over.</p>
<p>“Why on earth are you doing that?” friends ask. “Aren’t you a bit old? Your grandchildren will feel neglected.”</p>
<h2>An upward trend</h2>
<p>Between 2012 and 2015, Australian universities recorded a steady stream of enrolments. The larger the university, the higher the numbers. Take Western Australia’s five universities for example: </p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/44BiS/4/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="452"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>The numbers for male postgraduates were similar, occasionally slightly lower. Available figures for 2016 do not indicate appreciable changes in enrolment numbers of males or females. Both groups may include existing academic staff, but the question remains as to why baby boomers are moving towards higher academic studies rather than retirement.</p>
<p>Completion rates for senior researchers indicate that whatever their reasons, they are highly successful:</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SgBS2/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="500"></iframe>
<hr>
<h2>The old status quo</h2>
<p>Social changes for women since the 1950s explain a lot. Women, it seems, are reaching towards long-held but unsatisfied desires for academic study. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233479892_%27A_study_corner_in_the_kitchen%27_Australian_graduate_women_negotiate_family_nation_and_work_in_the_1950s_and_early_1960s_1">In 1960s Australia</a>, only 27% of university students were female. University was not a common goal for girls in that era. They were not expected to have long careers, if any at all. Acceptable options were nursing, clerical positions, teaching or hairdressing, none of which required a degree. Young married women were asked at job interviews if they intended to become pregnant, and learned to say “no” regardless of their intentions, rather than risk failing the interview. </p>
<p>University was not a common pathway for a girl, but marriage was. In the same time period, 45% of girls who left formal education after secondary school were married by the time they were 20. On the flip side, only 20% of those who did attend university were married by 20. </p>
<p>The era’s unwritten rule was marry early, have children straight away. Once children arrived, returning to work was frowned upon. For example, one colleague waited until her children were over 18, then delayed her academic aspirations even longer to help care for grandchildren. “Family first,” she said. She was halfway through a PhD when we met, and closer to 70 years old than 60. </p>
<h2>Social change</h2>
<p>Since the 1960s, the status of women and the acceptability of post-marriage careers and further social changes have made university education for young women a viable option. Baby boomers who missed out are now seizing their opportunity. Their motivation is not the apprehension of retirement and subsequent loss of identity, as is the case with older male postgraduates, but rather the lure of a new phase of life. One that was out of reach before. At university, senior women are achieving in their own right, no longer functioning as complementary bodies to men as mothers, wives, sisters or daughters. </p>
<p>I began postgraduate research at 63. In 2015, I was among 118 women over 60 at Western Australia’s five universities who successfully completed their degrees. In Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, 373 senior women from 13 universities gained postgraduate degrees.</p>
<p>Studies show the intellectual, physical and emotional benefit of such challenges for older people. In 1989, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and-society/article/bond-john-peace-sheila-dittmannkohli-freya-and-westerhof-gerben-eds-ageing-in-society-european-perspectives-on-gerontology-third-edition-sage-london-2007-384-pp-pbk-2099-isbn-13-978-1-4129-0020-1/28346E919B4C3AD475CA6DCEFBF1160A">UNESCO viewed</a> academic and further education for older people as a legitimate use of higher education. In 2005 <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/35268366.pdf">the OECD recognised</a> the needs and aspirations of older people.</p>
<p>While it may still be seen as unusual for women to begin academic studies in their later years, it is not strange for women in their sixties to continue fulfilling academic careers. Academia is one place where seniors of any gender continue working until they decide to call it a day. Examples of women who do just that are easy to find: Professor of Classics at Cambridge University Mary Beard, age 62. Germaine Greer, writer and Professor at Warwick University, age 78. Curtin University’s Associate Professor Liz Byrski, age 73. The list goes on. </p>
<h2>Senior female academics’ potential</h2>
<p>We should encourage older women to see academic study as a fruitful, challenging way forward, regardless of age.</p>
<p>For the trailblazing cohort of older researchers, the question remains - is there a future for them after graduating? They can assure themselves that they are role-models to grandchildren, other women, and the wider community. Some become mentors, officially or unofficially, to younger postgraduates or they may take up sessional academic positions - but they can do and be so much more. </p>
<p>People are living longer. We are healthier and more active in our later years. We are told 50 is the new 40, so surely 60 can be the new 50. Baby boomer postgraduates want to participate long after they are 60. It is shortsighted not to see <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_fulltext/DP63.pdf">the social and economic benefits</a> of this. To the universities who nurtured them, and awarded scholarships, these women are an untapped asset. They could easily become research pods of energy and output, supported by their alma maters, to the advantage of both.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lesley Neale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Female baby boomers who missed out earlier in life are now jumping at the opportunity to further their education.Dr Lesley Neale, Adjunct Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.