Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

In this paper we argue for the importance of an historical and biographical approach to understanding, valuing, and working with women in later life. Our research, funded by the Economic and Research Council, focuses on women born 1939-52 who became young adults in Britain 1954-76. These women are now part of the largest ever group of over 60s in Britain; their needs and demands have unprecedented influence on politics, public services, and commerce. They are redefining ageing, making new demands on, and contributions to, society. Their pioneering approach to later life is attributed partly to their youth experiences in decades marked by profound social change (Edmunds and Turner 2002; Biggs et al 2007; Gilleard and Higgs 2007; Phillipson 2007), indeed historians suggest young women were harbingers of key postwar changes (Brown 2011, Brooke 2012), but there has been no detailed study of this generation’s youth and its resonance in later life. To present our argument we draw upon our innovative mixed methods research which includes quantitative and qualitative analysis of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the National Study of Health and Development, also in-depth interviews and archival study.