Volume-XI, Issue-IV, July 2025 |
The Gendered Politics of Aging: Older Women and Structural Subjugation Debasmita Ganguly, Assistant Professor (CFT), Department of Sociology, Shri Shikshayatan College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India |
Received: 20.06.2025 | Accepted: 09.07.2025 | Published Online: 31.07.2025 | Page No: | ||||
DOI: 10.29032/ijhsss.vol.11.issue.04W.116 |
ABSTRACT | ||
Most feminist scholars, after drawing upon various structural inequalities that remain pretty evident especially the identities which are masked behind invisible and intangible ideas, especially gendered inequalities, did carry forward the idea being quite uniform even in the older ages. R. W. Connell, in her writings, try to highlight the ideas of hegemonic masculinity which manifests itself in such concrete ways that it generates a structural gendered imposition of roles as well, especially when it reaches the older ages. This paper would examine the gendered contours of inequalities, especially, in the later life, focusing on the disproportionate subjugation experienced by the older women compared to the older men. These inequalities have been embedded/ rooted in traditional patriarchal norms, so much so, that these social facts are neither accidental or coincidental, not even isolated, but rather glorified. In this paper, the researcher points out how evidently the traditional patriarchal ideas penetrate the concept of ageing as well, where women are still bound to foster an environment of nurture, which definitively sticks to the idea of marginalization. Keywords: Collateral subjugation, older women, structural inequalities, glorified sacrifices, patriarchy, traditional roles, reproductive labour |