Feminización de la vejez y Estado del Bienestar en España

Abstract

This article upholds the view that the transformation of population dynamics known as
«demographic transition» is an important motor for change not only in the distribution of the
population between the various age groups, but also in that of the roles tradicionally assigned to
each sex.
It is a question of closely related changes. The growing weight of people of mature and
advanced years and the generalization of survival to those ages open up new possibilities for social
and family organization, and new individual life-cycle «designs». I shall support the view that the
distribution of productive and reproductive roles is ceasing to move around sex, and is becoming
articulated around age. It is a well-known fact that the youth and adult age groups are increasingly
turning towards types of conduct hitherto considered to be «masculine», and it is suggested that
those in the mature and advanced years age groups could be experiencing an inverse preponderance
of those others considered hitherto as «feminine». It is this phenomenon of the «feminization of old
age» which I aim to demonstrate here, arguing, besides this, the social advantages and risks that it
involves.