1st Edition

Ageing, Gender and Sexuality Equality in Later Life

By Sue Westwood Copyright 2016
    258 Pages
    by Routledge

    258 Pages
    by Routledge

    Ageing, Gender and Sexuality focuses on the experiences of older lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals, in order to analyse how ageing, gender and sexuality intersect to produce particular inequalities relating to resources, recognition and representation in later life. The book adopts a feminist socio-legal perspective to propose that these inequalities are informed by and play out in relation to temporal, spatial and regulatory contexts. Discussing topics such as ageing sexual subjectivities, ageing kinship formations, classed trajectories and anticipated care futures, this book provides a new perspective on older individuals in same-sex relationships, including those who choose not to label their sexualities.

    Drawing upon recent empirical data, the book offers new theoretical approaches for understanding the intersectionality of ageing, gender and sexuality, as well as analysing the social policy implications of these findings. With an emphasis on the accounts of individuals who have experienced the dramatically changing socio-legal landscape for LGB people first-hand, this book is essential reading for students, scholars and policymakers working in the areas of: gender and sexuality studies; ageing studies and gerontology; gender, sexuality and law; equality and human rights; sociology; socio-legal studies; and social policy.

    Ageing, Gender and Sexuality won the Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Hart Prize for Early Career Academics for 2017.

     1. Introduction  2. Regulatory Context  3. Ageing Sexual Subjectivities  4. Constructing Kinship  5. Classed Trajectories  6. Anticipated Care Futures  7. Conclusion 8. Appendix 1: Methodology 9. Appendix 2: Participants’ Profiles 10. Appendix 3: Participants’ Ages and Eras 11. Appendix 4 Cohort Allocations 12. Case Law 13. Statute

    Biography

    Dr Sue Westwood is a researcher at the University of Oxford, Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender, University of Surrey and teaches Law at Coventry University Law School, UK.

    "This book offers invaluable insights into the range of experiences and concerns of old and aging lesbians and gay men, hitherto ignored in policy, research and practice."

    —Professor Rosemary Auchmuty, School of Law, University of Reading, UK

    "This timely and absorbing book provides a path-breaking analysis of the intersections of gender, sexuality and class in later life. Through novel analyses of the lives of older lesbians and Gay men (LGB), it advances theoretical understandings of legal changes about sexuality, the construction of kinship, and inequalities in later life. By weaving empirical research with a breadth of theoretical ideas, this agenda-setting book is essential reading within ageing, gender, and sexuality studies."

    —Professor Sara Arber, Co-Director, Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG), University of Surrey, UK

    "In Ageing, Gender and Sexuality: Equality in Later Life, Dr Westwood breaks new ground with her nuanced exploration of the intersection of aging, gender, and sexuality. Combining personal narratives with a "feminist socio-legal" approach, the book provides a compelling analysis of the equality issues facing lesbian, gay, and bisexual individual later in life.  It makes a major contribution to the study of lesbian, gay, and bisexual aging and should be required reading for all those interested in questions related to aging, gender, and sexuality."

    —Nancy J. Knauer, I. Herman Stern Professor of Law and Director of Law & Public Policy Programs, Beasley School of Law, Temple University, USA

    "An empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated study focussing on ‘voices on the margins’, and their spatial and temporal dis-placements, including from disciplinary locations and hetero-normative institutional provisions.  This book re-invigorates important concepts such as ‘families of choice’, ‘recognition’, ‘performativity’, and ‘intersectionality’, stretching these to consider the specificities of ageing LGB lives. In challenging the rhetoric of ‘the world we have won’, it centres the question of ‘equality for what and to whom?’, allowing for attentiveness to resistant and blocked futures, in the realization and resourcing of ageing sexual subjectivities."

    —Yvette Taylor, Professor of Education, University of Strathclyde, UK

    "Sue Westwood's book leads the way in the intersectional analysis of ageing sexualities. It sets a new standard for research in the area. The book carefully examines how lesbian, gay and bisexual experiences of ageing are shaped by gender, class, relational status, law and social policy. It is essential reading for students, academics, and those with interest in ageing and/or sexuality."

    —Brian Heaphy, Professor of Sociology, The University of Manchester, UK