Diverse Reflections
Featured Late-life Homelessness: Experiences of Disadvantage and Unequal Aging
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Amanda Grenier
This paper outlines the parameters of late-life homelessness based on ethnographic research with stakeholders and lived experiences of unhoused people aged 50+ in the urban setting of Montreal, Canada. It discusses the argument put forward in the book Late-life Homelessness: Experiences of Disadvantage and Unequal Aging, namely, that policies and practices (or the lack thereof) produce and shape homelessness across the life course and into late life. The paper is organized according to key project insights about age/eligibility, aging in ‘undesirable’ places, and unmet need that were offered via qualitative interviews with older people and stakeholders in community-based shelter and long-term care settings. Based on these, it argues that late-life homelessness is not only about being or becoming homelessness in later life, but a phenomenon that is created and sustained by disadvantage over time, processes of social exclusion, policy inaction and abandonment. The paper concludes with the need to develop responses geared toward achieving social change including practical solutions for housing, income/food security, safety and support as well as larger efforts to create just, fair and meaningful futures.
Cut Me Nicely: Understanding the Patient/client-aesthetic Surgeon Relationships in the Aesthetic Surgery
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michaela Honelová, Lucie Vidovićová
(Anti-ageing) aesthetic surgery is currently the fastest-growing commercial medicine. Despite the popularity of aesthetic surgery and its power in society, less research attention is paid to what happens between women (potential clients/patients) and aesthetic surgeons during the consultation process at the aesthetic surgery clinic. Therefore, we tried to fill the gap in this study by understanding negotiation, power positions, and trust anchored between women (potential patients/clients) and aesthetic surgeons. Through qualitative research based on interviews and non-participatory observations, this paper attempts to comprehend the meaning attributed to these aesthetic interventions by the aesthetic surgeons and the women patients/clients. Aesthetic surgery has and uses its specific communication practices, language, trust-building, decision-making, and certain gender-specificities. The specific experience with the journey to aesthetic surgery can influence women's perception of their aging process and beauty. All these aspects are discussed in this study.
Gender Differences over the Life Course: The Class of '73
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Paul Anisef
This paper explores various gender differences between men and women in the Class of ’73 cohort study conducted in Ontario, Canada between 1973 and 2019. The project began as a short-term study of high school students and their attitudes and behaviours with respect to educational plans in order to provide projection data for post-secondary enrolments to the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU). With the assistance of the Survey Research Centre at York University, a sample survey of Ontario grade 12 students was carried out in the spring of 1973. Over the next four decades, a total of six follow-ups were conducted with the same cohort. These follow-ups were conducted in the fall of 1973 (Phase II, N=2156), fall of 1974 (Phase III, N=2163), fall of 1979 (Phase IV, N=1522), summer of 1988 (Phase V, N=1129), winter of 1994 (Phase VI, N=788)), and fall of 2019 (Phase VII, N=280), effectively converting the project into a longitudinal study of education, work, and life pathways for a generation that has seen unprecedented change in Canada’s economy and society. In this paper, we examine gender differences in the social mobility, education, and domestic responsibilities of members of the Class of ’73. These data allow us to explore how the educational attainment, occupational status, and domestic responsibilities of cohort members have shifted over time as cohort members enter retirement.
