ESTUDIO ETNOGRÁFICO SOBRE EL ENVEJECER DE LAS MUJERES MAYORES DESDE UNA PERSPECTIVA DE GÉNERO Y DE CURSO VITAL.

Nowadays, bibliography on ageing and old age from a gender perspective is still scarce. Moreover, many of the available studies carried out from that perspective highlight older women's vulnerabilities, to the detriment of their strengths and diversity. This paper attempts to confront such a scarcity. The issue of this research is older women's ageing. It has been approached through an ethnographic study framed within the disciplines of geroanthropology2 and feminist gerontology, and using focus groups with women, participant observation in diverse contexts, as well as interviews to both specialists and chairs of women's associations. Our study renders evident that gender roles played by participants throughout their life courses have had a negative impact on their situation in old age (macro analysis). Likewise, through an analysis of their different trajectories and personal experiences (micro analysis) diversity among these women is stressed. Three main dimensions stand out in the study: structural disadvantages experimented by older women compared with older men; older women's contribution to socioeconomic development through family caregiving; finally, how older women reconfigure their personal project through social participation and the practice of active citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]