Gender, ageing and carework in East and Southern Africa: A review

Abstract

An estimated 58 million persons aged 60-plus live in sub-Saharan Africa; by 2050 that number will rise sharply to 215 million. Older Africans traditionally get care in their old age from the middle generation. But in East and Southern Africa, HIV has hollowed out that generation, leaving many older persons to provide care for their children's children without someone to care for him or herself in old age. Simultaneously, the burden of disease among older persons is changing in this region. The result is a growing care deficit. This article examines the existing literature on care for and by older persons in this region, highlighting understudied aspects of older persons’ experiences of ageing and care – including the positive impacts of carework, variation in the region and the role of resilience and pensions. We advance a conceptual framework of gendered identities – for both men and women – and intergenerational social exchange to help focus and understand the complex interdependent relationships around carework, which are paramount in addressing the needs of older persons in the current care deficit in this region, and the Global South more generally.

Keywords:

• ageing
• East and Southern Africa
• carework
• HIV
• gender

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Gerontological Society of America meeting and the American Sociological Association Meeting. The authors would like to thank Feinian Chen, Gillian Ice, Micki Iris, Paul Kowal, Susan Short and anonymous reviewers for constructive feedback that improved the paper. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH or NICHD.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We focus on the geopolitical region of East and Southern Africa as designated by the World Health Organization, UNESCO, UNAIDS, IOM and other international organisations. The countries included in this region vary depending upon the organisation or project, but generally include the following: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. While not all countries in the region have been equally affected by HIV/AIDS (see Table 1), the majority has contended with an HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Additional information

Funding

This research has also benefited from the NICHD-funded University of Colorado Population Center [grant number R21 HD51146] through administrative and computing support. Additional support came from the University of Missouri Research Board.