Clary Krekula

Multiple Marginalizations Based on Age: Gendered Ageism and Beyond

This chapter offers a theoretical contribution to the discussions revolving around multiple marginalizations based on age. Our main focus is on gendered ageism, where vulnerability and marginalization is based on the interaction of age and gender, and its potential to highlight the processes and practices of marginalization. Based on the understanding of ageism as a socio-cultural practice involving privilege, subordination, and inequality, we rework existing conceptualizations of multiple marginalizations and of gendered ageism. The understanding of ageism as a form of doing enmeshed in interlocking power structures draws attention to the importance of socio-cultural context and the dynamics involved in the creation and reproduction of social reality, including social inequalities. This chapter draws on a wide range of existing studies to illustrate and explain this new approach. It concludes with an outline of an applicable research programme that yields novel ways of exploring multiple inequalities in later life and gendered ageism more specifically.

Contextualizing older women’s body images: Time dimensions, multiple reference groups, and age codings of appearance

ABSTRACT The article sheds light on older women’s body images and problematizes assumptions that women’s aging is more painful and shameful than men’s aging since men are not expected to live up to youthful beauty norms, the so-called double standard of aging hypothesis. Based on 12 qualitative interviews with women from the age of 75 from the Swedish capital area, I argue that older women have access to a double perspective of beauty, which means that they can relate to both youthful and age-related beauty norms. The results also illustrate that women’s body image is created in a context where previous body images are central and that this time perspective can contribute toward a positive body image. Further, the results show how age codings of appearance-related qualities create a narrow framework for older women’s body images and point to the benefits of shifting the analytical focus toward a material-semiotic body where corporeality and discourse are seen as interwoven.

On gray dancing : Constructions of age-normality through choreography and temporal codes

Against the background of population aging, older peoples dance has attracted attention in research and its health promoting effects and social meanings have been brought to the fore. In this article we focus on the context and power dimensions of dance with an emphasis on the organizing of dance among older adults in terms of social discourses and age relationships. On the basis of qualitative interviews with 33 older dancers and 11 dance providers in Sweden, the study illustrates how dance is organized through social discourses on healthism and on the increasing group of older people as a powerful consumer group. The study highlights that older people and their social dance contexts are marked and subordinated in relation to younger age groups through non-verbal practices such as choreography and temporal codes. In short, dancing among older adults is not only a common health promoting and social activity, but also an arena in which age and age normality are negotiated and constructed.

Managing visibility and differentiating in recruitment of women as leaders in the armed forces

Abstract Recruitment is one of the Swedish Armed Forces’ (SAF) main challenges today. Recruiting more women into the organization is one of the organization’s aims, as well as providing them with more opportunities for career development. The purpose of this article is to gain a deeper understanding of how female military officers perceive barriers and advantages on their way to higher leadership positions. A total of 10 women from a variety of backgrounds and positions in the armed forces were interviewed. Their ranks ranged from Captain to Colonel and they represented army, naval units and air force. The interviews were analysed using a Grounded Theory approach. The qualitative analysis resulted in two main themes: Supporting visibility of women as leaders and differentiation of women as leaders. The former concerns positive strategies on an individual and organizational level that support an increase in the number of female leaders in the SAF, and is a way of responding to political incitements and the SAF’s fundamental values. The second concerns ways how women are portrayed as different and divergent from the male standard. The suggested model may be valuable in recruitment, educational settings and leader development of high-level military officers from a gender perspective.

The woman as problem and solution—analysis of a gender equality initiative within the Swedish Rescue Services

Abstract The aim of this article is to study how problem definitions of gender equality affect the possible outcomes of gender equality initiatives. The Swedish Municipal Rescue Services were chosen as the empirical example because they offer a workplace where women are greatly under-represented despite years of gender equality efforts. The article analyses how reasoning around gender equality shapes and constructs problem formulations around gender and equality. This article contributes to the debate on the conditions of gender equality founded on gender equality definitions, and how this relates to the potential for change. The gender equality efforts within the Rescue Services are problematized based on Bacchi’s policy analysis model. We do so by analysing the applications attracted by a call for a gender equality initiative within the Municipal Rescue Services—A Fire Station for Everyone. The article argues that, to some extent, the problem definitions in this case undermine gender equality initiatives as they place women—whom they wish to recruit to the Rescue Services to make it more gender equal in a numerical sense—in a paradoxical position as both problem and solution. Nor do they problematize power issues. It is stated that the given problem descriptions do not leave a lot of room for change, but that the method used to analyse the problem descriptions can be an important tool for understanding why gender equality initiatives may struggle to achieve their intended objectives.