1. Initiatives

We carried out about 180 telephone interviews with associations, public authorities, private person etc. in Germany, inquiring whether they had knowledge of initiatives run for or by older women, whether they were perhaps organisations supporting such initiatives, or were themselves active as this field.

A total of 96 questionnaires and information sheets were posted to 65 addresses.

So far, we have received 50 questionnaires back, of which 47 have been taken into account in the information pool.

The research work was mainly done according to the snowball procedure. Suggestions and tips from people actively involved in this sector were followed up and as a result further initiative run for or by older women were found. Our attention was drawn to initiatives by, for example, staff and colleagues working with senior citizens' and women's groups, or by people representing the political interests of these groups.

Our experience is that the theme "Equal Opportunity for Older Women" generally met with interest among our interview partners. Some of the interviewees were aware of the problems this entailed, others were made aware of older women as an independent interest group by the fact that the theme was being addressed within the framework of our inquiry. Nevertheless, only seldom did we come upon initiatives for the improvement of equal opportunities for older women. What astonished us particularly was the fact that in the field of work with women, that is to say, in centres and similar institutions for women, there were only comparatively few offers specifically for older women. We see various reasons for this and will outline these briefly in the following.

Exogenous reasons: the lack of funds, especially in the field of gender-specific political measures. Measures in this field are largely aimed at improving women's chances on the labour market and are therefore aimed primarily at younger women.

Endogenous reasons in the target group: Many older women feel uneasy about imposing a gender-specific limitation on their initiatives or activities. This unease presumably stems from the feeling that their needs are not gender-specific and that they therefore do not require their own particular space. In the case of residential projects, for example, it was occasionally pointed out that in principle men were also addressees, even though de facto only women were involved and they rated this status quo positively. An awareness of gender-specific needs and problems was often found among women who were, or are still active in the women's movement and now want to continue these activities respective to their age, for themselves and for other women. As the generation of the "new women's movement" gradually becomes the group of "older women", one can expect an increase in the number of initiatives specifically aimed at women in this sector.

Problems mobilising the target group: Offers of further education courses, for example by the Volkshochschulen, adult education centres, or by women's centres are often unsuccessful because there are not enough interested older women to join such courses. However, the experience of the further education providers is that women who have taken part in such courses showed a great interest in their being continued or extended.

2. Bibliographical research on the theme of "Older Women"

Within the framework of our research work we found 57 items of literature on the theme of "Older Women".

What is striking is the relatively large number of publications on the theme of "Sexuality and Older Women" aimed at changing people's attitudes on this topic, something which has surely been partially successful. These publications are addressed not only to older women, but also to doctors and carers.

Another theme dealt with widely in the literature and respective guides are the changing living conditions and lifestyles of older women in Germany, and the changing social images and clichés. Here too, the influence of the women's movement on the "new generation of older women" is evident.

3. Political programmes and measures

Both research into printed publications and in the Internet, and telephone research have shown that in the Federal Republic of Germany over the last five years there have been no political programmes or measures worthy of mention and no specific promotion policies aimed at improving equal opportunities for older women, except for the upward revaluation of the time spent rearing children when calculating women's pensions.

As our concern is not with political programmes with a systematic goal, this research does not take into account the financial support given to individual projects such as the international conference "Willkommen im 3. Leben" (cf. initiatives) or the on-going EU project on the improvement of equal opportunities for older women. However, these deserve a mention.

In recent years, older women and their specific living conditions have been focused on in the Federal Republic as a target group for promotion measures to do with the higher material evaluation of the time they spent rearing children. The aim here is a successive decrease in the financial disadvantages for women pensioners who have reared children. Other political decisions over the past years that have affected older women, such as the raising of their pension entry age and the higher amount of own income to be taken into account in the context of a survivors' pension are not looked upon by us as promotion policies and therefore are not introduced within the framework of this project. Though this policy is formally oriented towards the concept of equality, in fact it mainly leads to a material deterioration in the situation of the respective women.

Telephone research was also carried out in all the federal states with the aim of inquiring about political programmes and measures in favour of older women in the departments, ministries, senate office, etc. responsible for the affairs of women and senior citizens.

Striking, though not surprising was the fact that we encountered uncertainty everywhere as to who was actually responsible for the target group "older women". In principle, this target group can be allocated to the political realms of women's and senior citizens' affairs. As a result, we were referred with our concrete inquiries from one department to another, so that in the end it seemed that no one felt responsible. Consequently, older women are not established as a target group for political action in federal state policy.

According to our information, no programmes or measures for older women are in progress currently or have been over the past five years.

However, in individual cases the theme was being approached:

In the state of Rhineland/Palatinate a programme focusing on "older migrant women" was planned by the Ministry for Culture, Youth, Family and Women, but became a victim of the difficult budget situation. In October 1997 in the state of Saarland, the Ministry for Women, Labour, Health and Social Affairs had "Older Women" as a focal point within the framework of an information campaign entitled "Focus on Women"

Projects and initiatives directed at older women are promoted more at local government level, where support is given to residential projects, educational measures and information evenings. In the state of Schleswig-Holstein, for example, there was a working group entitled "Gewalt gegen ältere Frauen" (Violence toward older women) located in the Department for Women's Affairs of the City of Kiel, and on 8 May 1999 an "Action and Information Day on Violence against Older Women" was organised. Unfortunately we have no further information on these initiatives.

The data relating to France was collated in the period from the beginning of December 1999 to the end of July 2000.

1. Initiatives

Our research into specific initiatives for older women in France did not prove very fruitful.

Initially, telephone contact was made on the basis of lists with approximately 200 institutions, NGOs, associations etc., the aim being to inquire whether they had programmes or activities that were suitable for inclusion in our project. The respective lists were drawn up mainly with the help of the databases at the Centre National d'Information et de Documentation des Femmes et des Familles (CNIDEF) and at the socio-gerontological centre Centre de Liaison, d'Etude, d'Information et de Recherche sur les Problemes des Personnes Agées (CLEIRPPA). The organisations contacted were deliberately well dispersed and not restricted to the socio-gerontological domain; they included women's organisations, feminist organisations, general women's interest groups, women's interest groups in the various churches, migrant women, country women, wives of professional soldiers and officers, wives of men from other professions, widows and widowers, older people's interest groups, various groups involved in the integration of women and men into the labour market, the homeless, as well as several regional branches of the CNIDEF.

Only in rare cases did we receive positive replies, so that most of the preliminary telephone calls justified sending the questionnaire relating to initiatives for women of 50 and older.

Given the fact that all French supplementary pension funds maintain a social fund for the benefit of their members, it was natural to assume that they had special social programmes for their older members. (1) This assumption could not be confirmed; there are apparently no specific programmes or initiatives for older / old women organised by these funds.

As for the programmes and initiatives of the CNIDFF branches at French department level, it transpired that although they organised both programmes and individual counselling throughout the country aimed at helping women to reorient themselves professionally or find employment, inquiries very seldom came from older women.

Even the local FAVEC (2) groups organise no specific activities for women.

Our inquiries about informal groups – which in Germany and Austria are sometimes subsumed under the heading of self-help groups – was also not very fruitful.

Generally, it can be claimed that France has a variety of initiatives both by and for women, and by and for older people, but not specially for older women. The organisations and groups whose target group are women do not work with specific age groups, and those whose target groups are older people do not work with a specific gender.

There are several reasons for the limited success of our search.

Basically, we only registered initiatives whose activities are aimed at women aged 50 and over. What is more, in accordance with the time period laid down, we completed our research at the end of June 2000 and did not resume after the summer break in early September.

A second reason for the "relative lack of interest" in older / old women we ascertained may be the fact that one of the main reasons for women's disadvantages is a direct consequence of the French pension system: all the disadvantages met in their working life (gender-based inequalities in wages/salaries; part-time work; gender-specific interruptions of work for family reasons etc.) are transferred to the retirement period and are reflected in the pensions. In the preliminary telephone conversations we noticed a general tone of resignation, as if it were a lost cause to battle against the otherwise very highly-regarded retirement pension system. Behind this resignation is the persistent image of weakness on the part of older people (weakness so to speak per definitionem or "naturally given") which merely this intensifies that resignation and discourages a fighting spirit.

Another explanation may have its roots in French social policy: the long-standing (since the 1960s) and successful senior citizens policy has been forced into the background by the social consequences of the labour market crisis, which to a certain extent can be regarded as justified, because, seen globally, material living conditions (for example income and housing) – including those of older women – have considerably improved; the media repeatedly speak of the (proven) fact that, overall, the average income of older members of the population is above that of the average French family. For decades, the older members of the population were regarded – even by French social policy – as being among those with the most material disadvantages; thanks to progressive improvements on the one hand, and as a result of increasing high unemployment on the other hand, other groups have assumed this social "priority position".

There are other reasons as well: For example, the general withdrawal of feminist organisations which had their greatest period of activity in the 1970s; the state's wide-ranging cost reduction strategies which effect in particular (although not only) those small organisations that survive to a large degree on state funds and consequently had to restrict their activities, or at least were not able to expand them (to include, for example, the concerns of older women, given that these were not part of the state's priority groups); difficulties in recruiting honorary staff; the success of the policy of avoiding gender-discriminatory activities in the field of old age relief.

As a result, only 15 initiatives in France are included in the information pool.

2. Bibliographical Research - Research Findings

Research was mainly carried out in the, at the time, still largest library in France specialising in socio-gerontology and using their database (CLEIRPPA). We also interviewed various colleagues there on literature and research projects that were possibly not accounted for in the library. Furthermore, we extended our research work to include publications by the Institut Nationale d'Etudes Démographiques, INED (3), and the Direction de la Récherche des Etudes de l'Evaluation et des Statistiques, DREES (4), and certain Internet publications.

The most striking finding of this research is the small amount of literature, research work and studies relating to older / old women compared to other socio-gerontological sectors, and the absence, by comparison with, for example, the United Kingdom in particular, of feminist studies and publications. This latter was confirmed by the vain search for feminist initiatives. (5)

The themes dealt with are many and varied: sexuality and seduction, physical fitness and psychological well-being, positive self-image, widowhood, women's socio-political achievements, departure from work / transition to retirement, sociological and societal impact on women's lives of the greatly increased life expectancy, improvements in women's material situation, new behaviour patterns as a consequence of the growing number of women living alone, reasons for the increased mortality rate among the widowed, absence of women from political bodies (occupied by older men), health (in particular menopause, osteoporosis and broken bones, and sleeplessness), to mention only the most frequently recurring themes.

France is represented in the net with 53 domestic entries (articles, books, dissertations, research reports, conference proceedings etc.). Other francophone literature and research work has been systematically excluded.

This part of our research work was largely completed in late May 2000 due to the temporary closing of the said specialised library.

3. Political programmes

France is represented in the net with ten programmes and/or legal texts. These relate mainly to the improvements in women's financial situation.

It should be noted that the legislation on equality prevents any gender-specific measures being agreed or maintained; for example, de jure, the survivors' pension originally created for women had to be extended to include men; de facto, it is mainly drawn by women. (6)

For the purposes of our research work we availed ourselves of the above mentioned specialised library, the Internet sites of relevant ministries, the national daily press (Le Monde) and the trade press on social legislation.

4. Summary of the Research Findings

Neither the problems of older women in general, nor that of equal opportunities for older women and men are particularly topical in France, having been forced into the background by the social consequences of the continuing and dominant labour market crisis. Political measures and initiatives by the NGOs focus more on younger women, for example, on improving their vocational framework conditions. At most, this approach aims only indirectly at decreasing the disadvantages of older women caused by the pension system, which after all are nothing more than a reflection of their employment conditions; given that these measures and activities concentrate on the causes of the disadvantages of older/ old women, they will in the long term serve to diminish, if not eliminate them completely.

The relative lack of interest in older/old women can also be explained by the fact that the general material living conditions of older members of the French population have improved, so that seen as a whole they are no longer one of the disadvantaged strata of society, even if certain groups still only have insufficient income – for example, older women with no full pension entitlements and former agricultural workers.

There exists in France a variety of initiatives by and for women, and by and for older people, but specific initiatives for older / old women are apparently the exception. The organisations and groups targeting women do not work with specific age groups, and those targeting older people do not work with a specific gender.

Only a rather small portion of the applied gerontological research and literature deals specifically with women, and there is a total lack of feminist gerontological research by comparison with the United Kingdom.

In conclusion …

To accelerate the process in favour of effective equal opportunity for older and old women, it is imperative for both women's and feminist organisations and the organisations and representatives of the aged section of the population to discover the older / old woman and her specific concerns, which are largely a consequence of her financial status.

In order to reduce the existing flagrant inequalities in the realm of retirement pensions, one could take the lead from a German pension-policy measure (Pension Reform of 1972) which in part balances out any former salary discrimination against women retrospectively (especially that of their lower wages and salaries than men): for insured parties with at least 25 years' allowable insurance years before the year 1973, the basis of assessment could be raised under certain circumstances; this measure makes a decisive difference to the income of the respective persons in after retirement.

In order to alter their specific situation as women, older women themselves would have to become more active. However, as in other European countries, they have no lobby corresponding to the one which France was confronted with at the time of the battle against the discrimination of women.

Before going into greater detail on the concrete experiences and conditions under which we pursued our research, we would like to begin our report with some figures.

In the course of the whole project, 364 associations and/or organisations were contacted in writing and asked for their support. 45 of these returned the first reply form, either stating their willingness to fill out the questionnaire, or requesting further information. As we regarded this reply quota as too small, we contacted almost all of the organisations and/or associations that had not reacted to our written request at least once by telephone.

By the deadline on 15 August 2000 we had received back the questionnaire from a total of 26 initiatives or organisations and compiled 42 bibliographical items. There are no entries under the heading Political programmes (see below).

1. In search of suitable initiatives and organisations

In order to access the widest possible range of relevant organisations, we had recourse both to the institute's own database, addresses on the Internet, and the contact persons referred to in the reply sheets. In this way we were able to contact a number of smaller initiatives and associations in addition to the large interest groups, the political representatives of women and senior citizens, and the public administrations.

The lack of interest in, or awareness of the theme was striking among the larger women's and senior citizens' organisations. One explanation for this is perhaps the fact that the decision-makers in the organisations representing women's interests are mostly younger women, while mainly men occupied the positions at the higher levels of the hierarchy in the "senior citizens' organisations". This means that those organisations which given their size and number of members (and financial resources), could easily become involved, actually show very little interest in the theme or else had set other priorities following the national elections that took place in Austria in autumn 1999. A number of smaller organisations or individuals spoke of a great interest in the theme of older women, while at the same time lamenting a lack of funds.

The initiatives and organisations which we included in our database on the basis of their activities had a certain difficulty defining themselves as an initiative devoted to the theme of "equal opportunities for older women". One reason for this may be that the designation "older woman" often has negative connotations and is therefore not used willingly.

2. Lack of political programmes in Austria

As in Germany, our research into political programmes in Austria was also not very fruitful. This can be partially explained by the fact the definition laid down by the project management as the guideline in our search for political programmes did not include one-off activities or events. Activities by political actors therefore, such as the special seminar on "Women get Older" by the meantime dissolved Ministry for Women or the Campaign 60+ by the so-called Women's Desk of the Salzburg state government, for example, are to be found instead among the collated initiatives.

In the course of our research work we realised that there are very few systematic or long-term measures in this field at political and administrative level. In Austria, political measures promoting equal opportunities for women are mainly restricted to equal treatment on the labour market and related issues (child care etc.). This explains why the large interest groups, such as the employees chamber (Arbeiterkammer) or the trades union congress, for example, pay so little attention to the concerns of older women.

3. Bibliography on the theme of "Older Women"

We have collated detailed information on a total of 42 books, research reports and other written material. One reason for this relatively large number is that after initial search difficulties, a change was made in our research approach: at first we searched in libraries and the Internet exclusively for Austrian literature on the theme of "Equal Opportunities for Older Women", with little success, as it transpired, due to the lack of such works in Austria. Our search was facilitated once it had been agreed with the project management to expand it to include German-language literature on the general theme of "Older Women".

The research findings show a strikingly large number of works on the theme of "Health". A series of personal reports on the theme of "Ageing" has also been published in the German-speaking region. There are no scientific studies dealing with the situation of older women in Austria, so there is a clear need for research on this theme.

4. Summary of research findings

In general, it can be said that the organisations and/or initiatives we contacted were taken somewhat by surprise by our questions. Most of the larger organisations do not see this problem as separate from their other activities, which is possibly due to a rejection of special treatment for individual groups or to the widespread viewpoint in senior citizens organisations that, one way or the other, the larger portion of their members are women, who look after this group of persons adequately.

Despite all the difficulties we encountered in our search for suitable associations and organisations, ultimately we found 26 which deal with the theme and have therefore been included in the database. For a country with 8 million inhabitants, this is not such a bad point of departure.

Furthermore we contacted individuals who, though (still) not organised, were willing to become more involved in the future. What is missing at the moment are resources and contacts between the individual initiatives. The attempt by the (former) Ministry for Women to support networking was discontinued last year after two special events. This had to do, among other things, with restructuring in the Austrian government.

It should also not be forgotten that the group of "older women" is not a homogenous one, and that the individual representatives do not necessarily represent the same interests.

In conclusion, we would like to state that in addition to the collation of data, our research has also resulted in many groups and organisations becoming aware of an issue which so far had not been dealt with separately. Discussions with the important decision-makers led us to assume that a much larger number than the above mentioned 26 initiatives would devote their attention to this theme if the "Equal Opportunities for Older Women" project were to be followed by a further one. For this reason, we regard the following steps as particularly important: