“An Untiring Zest for Life”: Images and Self-Images of Old Women in England

Abstract

The prevailing view among historians and contemporaries is that old people were more highly regarded in the past and that old women were regarded more negatively than men. This article questions such simple changes over time and the uniformity and negativity of attitudes in the present. A variety of sources-diaries, letters, biographies, social investigation, and personal testimony-indicate how much can be retrieved about the images and self-images of old women. They suggest how varied these images have been. Older women, rich and poor, could belie and contest negative stereotypes and could be well respected.The prevailing view in contemporary discourse (at least in English) is that "old people" had higher status, a more positive image, and were accorded more respect in "the past" than at present. This past is an unspecific territory, sometimes, perhaps, Victorian, sometimes vaguely preindustrial. Until very recently, the common view of those few historians who had addressed the issue was that the image of old people has indeed deteriorated over time-in no matter what time or place they studied it, whether from the medieval period to the Renaissance or since industrialization. 1 In general, too, they, and present-day commentators, have believed that there is a dominant present-day stereotype that portrays old people negatively as decrepit, dependent burdens. Where historians of old age have discussed gender, and this has been rare, despite the tendency of females to outlive males in most known times and places, they have believed that generally held stereotypes of old women were, and are, more negative than those of old men.2 It has been argued that old age has popularly been seen as beginning earlier for women-at menopause. Yet, what follows suggests that a variety of sources-from private diaries to social surveys and poor law records-cast doubt on this for both rich and poor old women. Rather, they indicate that, for women as for men, old age was perceived more subjectively, in relation to social power and/or physi-235

Zest for life among 65‐ and 75‐year‐olds in Northern Finland and Sweden – a cross‐sectional study

“…Those who reported having been discriminated against due to age had a six times higher risk of having no zest for life. Thane argued that older women engage in a continuous dialogue between their own self‐image and other people's expectations of how older people should act and be. Some older women can easily accept and ‘fit into’ socially accepted ideals while others struggle in creating an identity; the prevailing negative stereotyping of older women in today's society makes this even more difficult.…”