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‘Women are just more active’: gender as a determining factor in involvement in senior centres
- Author:
- MARHANKOVA Jaroslava Hasmanova
- Journal article citation:
- Ageing and Society, 34(9), 2014, pp.1482-1504.
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
A three-year ethnographic study was conducted at two centres in the Czech Republic which offer seniors-only leisure-time activities strongly grounded in the idea of active ageing. The method of participant observation was used, and 47 in-depth interviews were conducted with the centres' clients and employees. The higher participation by women in the centres and the role they attribute to such organisations in their lives is analysed in the context of their previous gendered biographies. Gender patterns embedded in the way daily activities at the senior centres are organised, as well as in the idea of active ageing itself, are highlighted. Despite the seeming invisibility of gender as a principle that structures the way these centres are run, they are in fact gendered organisations, where gender emerges as a basic principle affecting the chances of participating in active ageing as presented by the centres. (Edited publisher abstract)