Ageing and care: Gendered costs and benefits of societal progress in an international perspective

Abstract

All over the world, increases in the average life spans of women and men mean that more people are reaching old age than ever in recorded history. In some regions and countries, decreasing birth rates have resulted in an ageing population, while in other areas, including sub-Saharan Africa, the AIDS epidemic is causing high mortality among young and middle-aged adults, leaving the old and the young to care for each other. The changes have come swiftly. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), today more than 60% of people older than 60 live in developing countries, and, by 2020, the WHO expects that the proportion of the population older than 65 in Cuba, Argentina, Thailand and Sri Lanka will exceed the same proportion in the U.S. today. The increased life spans of women and men are an important and positive result of improved living conditions. Yet the public debate over ageing, which often employs the expressions “distorted population pyramid” or “increased burdens on the economically active”, reflects the normative view that ageing is a negative development. There is an interesting paradox here; considerable effort and resources are used to save and prolong human lives¹, but still the successful outcome is regarded as deeply problematic, for instance when debating social policy and social insurance, welfare systems and future labour markets.