Ageing, the Body and the Gender Regime

The current (postfeminist) gender order comprises a highly complex coexistence of old and new norms and expectations, freedom and constraints, within a neoliberal social order underpinned by individualism and involving a shift in gender performance by men and women. Health, illness and disease at different points in the life course can be used as a vehicle to illuminate structural and cultural inequalities that persist despite several decades of progressive reform in western countries. This collection brings together a number of key researchers, both established and new to the field, and based across North America, Australia, the UK and Europe, and comprises both empirical and theoretical work. Drawing on a wide range of disciplinary fields, including medical sociology, medical anthropology, nursing, gender studies, sociology of risk and age studies, all authors use heath, well-being, illness and disease as a lens through which to explore the complexities and inequalities associated with late modernity. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of age studies, medical sociology and anthropology, gender studies, healthcare and nursing.

Susan Pickard is Professor of Sociology at the Department of Soociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Liverpool. Jude Robinson is Professor in Health and Well-being at the Institute of Health and Well-being Social Sciences, University of Glasgow.

Introduction 1. Embodying gender in the everyday: exploring space, body-scrutiny and safety 2. Unscrambling Risk, Contesting Expertise: The Case of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine 3. Bodies and boundaries in three generations 4. Contested chronic conditions fused with medical uncertainty: gendered perspectives 5. Reclaiming Menopause 6. Beyond lipstick and woodwork. Why gender matters when living with dementia. 7. "MEN ARE NOT WOMEN": BIOMEDICINE AND THE (HETERO)SEXING OF AGEING BODIES 8. Toward an Intersectional Approach to Health in Later Life: Incorporating Age Relations 9. Reproducing gender and smoking 10. Femininity and frailty through the life course