Introduction
On July 14th, 2022, the United Nations hosted a virtual event titled Older Women in Crises: Invisible Among the Most Vulnerable. This event looked specifically at older women in the context of emergencies and the risks faced by this group that create barriers to aid. Topics of focus included looking at the forced displacement of older women, their vulnerability to climate impacts, as well as increasing levels of illiteracy that create significant barriers to information and aid. The event was geared towards elaborating on these crises and looking at appropriate mechanisms to tackle present inequalities and discrimination against older women. This proceeded as an interactive moderated discussion between the panellists, along with questions from participants.
The Speakers
Six speakers attended this event, each with their own expertise in different areas of older women’s vulnerabilities. Erica Dhar has worked with the United Nations on sustainable development goals and has expertise in the human rights of elderly persons. She pursues this as a board member of the UN NGO Committee on Ageing and co-chair of the UN Stakeholder Group on Ageing. Rosemary Kalapurakal has 20 years of experience with the UN, working in policy and strategic management involving sustainable development and inclusion. Lefhoko Kesamang, a senior social welfare officer, works on the implementation of policies surrounding disability, age, social policy, and social protection in the African Union. Claudia Mahler is an independent expert in human rights protection, minority rights and asylum law. Papa Seck is the chief of the research and data section in the UN Women’s global gender data program. Lastly, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck is the vice-chair of the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls. The broad expertise of these speakers provided an interesting interactive experience of the crises surrounding older women today.
The Points of Discussion
Erica Dhar provided an opening to the event where she provided an overview of the issues older women face today in our society. It is noted that population ageing is one of the most significant social transformations of our time, where the number of people over the age of 60 will likely double by 2050. Concerningly, 80 percent of older adults will be living in low- and middle-income countries, which may exacerbate their vulnerability to other crises. Specifically for older women, since women live longer than men, the overrepresentation of this group will only increase in the coming decades. States are preparing themselves to tackle this demographic shift, yet the difficulty lies in the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination experienced by older women. They find themselves with fewer savings and assets, which becomes increasingly apparent during emergencies and disasters due to the disproportionate effect on older women. Especially in recent times, COVID-19 has made this disproportionate effect evidently clear due to the unequal survival chances. Furthermore, women face a lack of access to resources that can support them in a crisis or emergency, which is paired with higher illiteracy rates that further hinder access to vital information. This introduction presented by Erica Dhar provided an overview of the situation and the topics that would be discussed further in the event.
Kalapurakal moderated the event for the remaining speakers, starting with Kesamang. He elaborated on his work on ensuring protocols and articles in the African Union are in place that are geared specifically towards the rights and protection of older women. It is noted that this social group also needs to tackle a lot of conflicts and disasters that strike Africa. Unfortunately, humanitarian organisations fail to target older women specifically, creating a gap in the available resources and aid to this demographic. Notably, Africa is working to focus on older women, specifically with regard to conflicts. Here, he wants to ensure that older women’s rights are protected in the face of conflict and that the Member States also recognise that these rights are paramount. However, there are still issues of ageism, gender and stigma against older people that slow down this process and create further obstacles.
Mahler continues this discussion by emphasising that current international frameworks are insufficient to tackle these issues and protect the rights of older women. This stems from insufficient international norms that are unable to cover the protection gaps present today. Furthermore, agist approaches are hindering older women from experiencing the fair treatment of participation. This, in turn, creates further obstacles as the critical voices stay unheard. Mahler also notes that climate change disproportionately affects older women due to the combination of old age as well as gender, which is also recognised by Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW, 1979).
The event continued with a plenary where speakers elaborated on various crises and approaches to tackle rights issues surrounding older women. Importantly, the speakers elaborated that ageism and age discrimination need a clear definition to establish a framework to tackle these issues. Likewise, a further issue is that governments are focusing their energy on youth. This is understandable as it is the next generation that will take over, yet older people are being unjustly disadvantaged, leading to political challenges surrounding a lack of education and access to employment for older people. A further systemic issue is that the voices of older people are unheard. They are unable to join negotiations that affect them directly and are unable to go in front of governments to take a stand for their rights. Speaker Erica Dhar, for example, focuses on bringing these voices to the government in an effective manner that can bring about positive change. Other organisations, such as Help Age International follow the same objective. This issue is demonstrated by the lack of inclusion of older women in development programs in many northern countries.
Several changes need to occur for the rights of older women to be protected and for discrimination and ageism to be tackled. Speakers agreed that more civil organisations need to speak up for the rights of older women, making them visible at the national level so that governments can have effective dialogue at the international level as well. Likewise, it is also established that an approach at the local level can be effective. Starting small in this way can help establish that voices have so far been unheard and bring the issue to people’s attention. This can further help bring the issues to the national and international level once awareness is raised.
Further, structural obstacles need to be eliminated. There are discriminatory laws and practices that are hindering older women from experiencing a full spectrum of rights. Likewise, an intersectional approach may be paramount to tackling this issue. This includes looking at socio-economic factors, poverty, emergency and crises combined with the age of the affected demographic. This could be done in the form of a life cycle approach. When gathering data on this issue, it is important to include qualitative elements in surveys rather than only quantitative ones to establish a comprehensive overview and ensure that all concerns can be voiced and recorded. Importantly, solidarity among movements is paramount to success. Stories, challenges and human rights proposals need to be shared and supported by the majority to bring about a positive change for older women. The importance of older women and the work that they have done is also highlighted. An example is older women leading the search for missing persons in the Americas. This highlights that since older women are often neglected by governments and in policies, it is paramount to revalue their place in society as human rights defenders, demonstrating even further the need to protect demographic rights as well.
Conclusion
The speakers demonstrated immense expertise surrounding the disadvantages older women face today. The event provided vital information regarding the issues themselves, creating awareness of the challenges ahead that need to be tackled. Overall information was given in the event to provide a global context of the issue, and the expertise that the individual speakers brought established a comprehensive overview of the individual issues that need to be tackled. Not only was the issue of gathering data elaborated on, but the speakers explained the work that they have done, such as bringing voices to the government or focusing on establishing just regional policies. In this manner, the event not only elaborated on the issues of older women in crises but also provided a framework of the work that is already being done and what still needs to change to tackle this fully .
Bibliography
United Nations General Assembly. (1979). Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discriminatioin against Women . New York: United Nations General Assembly.
Dhar, E., Kalapurakal, R., Kesamang, L., Mahler, C., Seck, P., Poliakakova, G., & Estrada-Tanck, D. (2022, July 14). Older Women in Crises: Invisible Among the Most Vulnerable [Virtual Event].
