Neccessity and problems of elderly women in the context of gender inequality: Life experiences of elderly women who live in nursing home

ARSLAN, Merve. Neccessity and Problems of Elderly Women in the Context of Gender Inequality: Life Experiences of Elderly Women Who Live in Nursing Home, Master's Thesis, Ankara, 2021. This study was conducted for the purpose of evaluating the gender-specific issues that elderly women encountered in their youth and adulthood who are now residents of the nursing home, in the context of gender inequality and ecological system approach and to reveal the effects of these problems on old age. Despite the fact that there are various researches conducted on old age, it is expected that this study will provide missing information about elderly women since there are limited number of studies on old age focusing on women. Methodologically, quantitative research design was applied and the research was conducted in general survey model. The research was carried out with 76 elderly women living in 4 different private nursing homes in Ankara and the data were collected through the interview form prepared by the researcher. Most of the data were collected through social care specialists working in nursing homes since it was banned to enter the building due to the measures taken for Covid 19, while some of the data were collected through face-to-face interviews conducted by the researcher. The notable research results are as follows: it has been determined that the elderly women are widows in general and that they do not consider remarriage because of the stereotypes arising from social gender inequalities such as fear of social pressure or people not finding it appropriate for women to remarry. Considering the educational status of elderly women, almost half of them could not even complete their primary school education. Among the reasons why elderly women dropped out of schools are difficulties of access to educational opportunities because of gender inequality, such as fathers not sending them to school, having to help with household chores, and girls attending school to be deemed as inappropriate. Considering the economic status of the participants, it was determined that the majority of them were housewives, supported themselves with the retirement pension or public assistance of their spouses, and had no social security. When the opinions of elderly women on roles and responsibilities in the family were examined, it is seen that gender roles have an effect on several issues. While elderly women state that taking care of children and housework is the responsibility of the women, they say that it is the men's responsibility to earn a living, earn money, repair and manage the house. As a result of the findings of the study, it has been revealed that the obstacles experienced by elderly women in accessing education opportunities in the previous periods of their lives, facing with sexist discrimination in working life, living according to gender roles in marriage and family relations, and facing problems related to marital status caused women to have deeper issues in their old age due to gender inequality. Key Words: Elderly women, issues of elderly women, social gender inequality