“It’s impossible for them to understand me ‘cause I haven’t said a word”: how women baby boomers shape social participation spaces in old age

ABSTRACT

The baby boom generation’s retirement will change the conceptualization of participation in old age due to their particularities from having experienced a specific socio-historical context. Likewise, the feminization of old age underscores the importance of developing research from the perspectives of gender and critical feminist gerontology. The objective of the present study is to identify and analyze women baby-boomers’ conceptualizations about social participation regarding the configuration of social participation spaces. Five discussion groups and five individual interviews were conducted with 56 baby boomers residing in Andalusia (Spain). Here we focus on a separate analysis of the 27 women participating in these settings. The results were organized around four factors: desirability of social participation spaces, adaptation of spaces to preferences, facilitators and barriers in the adaptation of spaces, and the importance of agency in the social participation spaces. Through the analyzed discourse it was observed that participants in this study gave special importance to promoting spaces that involve social contribution, self-management, and self-determination of the spaces, adaptation of access, as well as exercising agency.

KEYWORDS:

• Social participation spaces
• baby boomers
• critical feminist gerontology
• preferences
• agency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Vecinas de cabeceras (‘lead neighbors’): a spontaneous social organization supporting nonprofessional women in Andalucía. The organization is based on mutual support amongst a group of women, in which the peer group offers security for those wishing step outside the domestic context.