Older Women, Older Men. The Findings of a Small-Scale Study into Gender Issues in Later Life. Occasional Papers Series: No. 8.

The question of what it means to be a man or woman as one moves through life was explored through a series of interviews with 28 grandparents who all lived in eastern Scotland. They ranged in age from 50 to nearly 80 and ranged in background from deprived to wealthy. The interviewees were asked to reflect on the historical changes that had occurred during their lifetimes and on being a man or woman in later life. Most interviewees welcomed the erosion of gender divisions and the loosening of gender stereotypes. Only a few women longed for the days when the private world of the family was more exclusively their responsibility. Although nearly all the women had some paid work experience and mentioned the personal gains from having a paid job, the key sense of worth for many of them still lay in the private world of the home. The men did not generally place as much significance on the home, and they generally received a sense of self-worth through employment that persisted into their retirement years. Many of the people leading the fullest lives were no longer living in marriages. (Contains 17 references.) (MN)