The Ageism-Gendered Gap

"Everyone started this pandemic saying COVID doesn't discriminate. It absolutely does. And it preys on every societal vulnerability we have ... biological and social, in particular."

"Older women are much more likely to be living in poverty -- and women outlive men. We know the greatest at-risk older population are older single women as they are disproportionately poorer. And those who are racialized are hit the hardest."

Dr.Samir Sinha, geriatrician, co-chair, National Institute on Ageing, Ryerson University 

In Brooklyn, N.Y., a cafe on the Coney Island boardwalk draws people of all ages, soaking up the sun in the pandemic, October 2020. Ageism, a new study finds, is “prevalent, ubiquitous and insidious” and not getting enough global attention.  JOHN PENNEY

 

According to geriatrician Dr.Paula Rochon, founding director of the Women's Age Lab at Women's College Hospital, Toronto, the global pandemic has highlighted inequities already in society. For example, poverty and pension gaps for older women, making them more reliant on underfunded social services like long-term care.

Over 47 percent of women over age 90 live in collective housing like nursing homes, in comparison with 33.3 percent of men in similar living arrangements, according to Statistics Canada. And while 33.2 percent of men in their 90s live as part of a couple, only 4.3 percent of women do. There are complexities leading to this situation, where women are likelier to become caregivers, first to children and then to older family members.

They may, as a result of these biological, social commitments, spend less time in the paid workforce and thus earn less and therefore become less likely to end up with a well-funded retirement. Women tend to live longer and since they tend as well to marry men slightly older than themselves, their future brings them a longer period of time alone.

Women receive 26 percent less in annual pension payments than men in the 38-member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. In Canada, poverty rates for older women register close to 1.5 times that of men, increasing with age. Sometimes women are more likely to require long-term care than men simply as a result of being unable to afford home care.

 

 

2021 to 2030 has been declared by the United Nations as the "decade of healthy aging". The World Health Organization earlier this year announced that the pandemic response has had the effect of revealing the extent of ageism leading to poorer health outcomes, isolation and ultimately premature death ... accompanying billions in socio-economic costs.

It is in fact, both because of their age and their gender that women face the double curse of "gendered ageism". "It's not just about aging or about women, but the intersection of the two", explains Dr. Rochon. Early in the pandemic's onset women in Canada faced greater risk factors for developing COVID-19 since two of three long-term care residents are women and the vast majority of health-care workers are themselves female.

On the other hand, as the pandemic continued, rates of infection,  hospitalization and death were steeper for men.  Slightly over half of all pandemic deaths have been male in Ontario. In Ontario, over 2,000 men between ages 60 and 79 died, in comparison to about 1,200 women in the same age group. Likely because men may also have taken more risks in precautionary mask wearing. Men are also known to be more likely to smoke leading to chronic conditions that leave them more vulnerable.

Older men and women have different risk factors for loneliness and social isolation, other syndromes the conditions arising from pandemic challenges has revealed. Those people who experience loneliness are more likely to seek out medical services. A key gap in medical knowledge is whether older women and men bear unique risk factors for loneliness.

"It's important to know how gender affects risk, because that affects potential treatments", explained epidemiologist Rachel Savage, a scientist with the Women's Age Lab, in acknowledging that contributors to loneliness include widowhood and declining health, conditions seemingly equal for both older men and women. "And lastly, women may just be more candid about being lonely. It may be more of a matter of how we ask the question", said Dr.Savage.

Only three of the ten countries with the highest number of COVID deaths -- Italy, Spain and Germany -- kept data by gender, and none of the ten countries reported a gender breakdown of deaths in long-term care homes, pointed out Dr.Savage.

The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the inequities faced by older women, say researchers. Photo by PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA /AFP via Getty Images