Older Women in Europe: A Human Rights-Based Approach

This book is about older women’s strength, freedom, tenacity, determination, resilience, independence, social and political involvement and, in particular, it is about re-imagining ageing.

Older women represent the great majority of older people. The book describes instances of age and gender discrimination and examples of social inclusion and protagonism of older women in Europe. It solicits a change in perspective, focussing on the necessary societal changes to make space to older people and older women in particular. How is society going to address age and gender discrimination in social and institutional settings? How the work settings should change to effectively make space to older workers and in particular older women? How the pension system should change? How the public health systems could provide effective care to older people and be sustainable?

This edited collection focuses on older women’s rights rather than their needs adopting a Human Rights Based Approach. The preservation of older women’s dignity, autonomy and security is its central topic, that is, ensuring that their rights are recognized. This collection offers insights valuable to a wide array of Human Rights activists, professionals, policy makers and social scientists and older women themselves.