'Ernst Gellner': January 2007
'Ernst Gellner': January 2007
'Ernst Gellner': January 2007
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'Ernst Gellner'
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Smith, A. (1991) National Identity. Penguin, London. differed, or why policies such as Social Security
The Warwick Debates (1996) The Nation: Imagined or defined-benefit plans rewarded stable labor
or Real? Republished from Nations and National- force participation were neither questioned nor
ism. Online. www.members.tripod.com. explored. Similarly, the equation of workforce
participation with adequate retirement finances
assumed a gender-neutral workplace in which
women and men reap similar rewards.
As important as this movement toward inclu-
gender, aging and sion was, using men as the explicit or implicit
reference group ultimately rendered women
Toni Calasanti deviant. Results and subsequent theorizing
viewed women in terms of how closely they
Interest and research in gender and aging have did or did not approximate male models, but
progressed through a variety of different phases, revealed little about women themselves. In
each spurred by developments in both feminist addition, the ways in which subsequent ‘‘differ-
scholarship and aging studies. While each stage ences’’ could be interpreted and used were pro-
has emerged from the previous, all can be found blematic. Gibson (1996) pointed to the bias in
in contemporary theory and research. the ways scholars typically discuss gender dif-
The first stage, which can be further subdi- ferences in old age, noting that men are used as
vided into two approaches, involved a focus the implicit standard and women are described
on women. Spurred by the 1970s women’s as deviating from it. This has critical implica-
movement, in the early 1980s some scholars of tions for future theory, research, and policies.
aging began to question the lack of explicit The realization that simply adding women
attention paid to aging women. This was into preexisting studies and theories rendered
obvious in such topic areas as retirement, where them as the ‘‘other’’ spawned a movement to
women were routinely excluded from research. examine women on their own terms. Spurred
Even national, large-scale data sets, such as the by developments in feminist scholarship, scho-
longitudinal retirement study undertaken by lars undertook a second response to the neglect
the Social Security Administration in the of women, that of centering on women’s experi-
1970s, only included women as primary respon- ences from their own standpoint. More com-
dents after their husbands had died. The pre- mon in the 1990s, research that has centered on
sumed split between private and public spheres women has allowed for a reformulation of meth-
fostered a belief that paid labor was central only ods and theories that incorporate women’s
to men’s identities and that, for women, retire- experiences as well as men’s.
ment was either irrelevant or unimportant. For example, in contrast to the model
Two attempts to address the neglect of intended to discern if women were more or less
women in aging research ensued, each repre- satisfied with retirement than men, research
senting a somewhat different approach. The beginning with women’s experiences revealed
first simply added women to research. Similar that, for most women, leaving the labor force
to what had occurred in other areas of sociology, meant leaving only one job, a paid job. For
scholars began to include women in studies or the most part, women retained their domestic
investigate them on their own. However, this labor responsibilities. This does not necessarily
‘‘add women and stir’’ tactic simply placed diminish their satisfaction with retirement, but
women into models and theories that derived certainly shapes their experiences of this time of
from men’s experiences. Conceptually, gender life in a different way from men’s. Indeed, the
remained an individual attribute, a demogra- notion of being ‘‘free’’ in retirement does not
phic characteristic with no structural properties. mean the cessation of work for women, but
For example, noting differences between men instead a reduced work load (for which they
and women’s labor force participation histories may well be grateful). The heightened focus
led to the conclusion that women’s intermittent on unpaid labor that resulted from centering
work histories result in lower retirement bene- on retired women also refocused attention on
fits. Why and how women’s work histories the productive activities of old people, both