A multi-authored study of the special health and social problems faced by older women living in Latin America and the Caribbean. As the book points out, their problems of poverty, bad health, and social isolation deserve special attention, not only because more women than men survive to old age, but also because they reach that vulnerable stage of life having already faced a lifetime of difficulties and discrimination related to their sex. The first half of the book consists of a background paper prepared expressly for the Consulting Group Meeting on Midlife and Older Women, co-sponsored by PAHO and the American Association of Retired Persons. The paper, which provides a comprehensive summary of the situation in the entire Region of the Americas, draws a portrait of a group of women diverse in social and cultural background but united by problems inherent to being female and middle-aged or elderly in male-dominated and youth-oriented societies. The paper also focuses on the one problem which unites women from all these societies: the traditional focus on health problems of women in their reproductive years and the tremendous lack of attention given to health problems of elderly women. Other papers explore the condition of older women in specific countries from the perspectives of health, social and psychological well-being, and economic status.

DC.PAHO

eng spa.

WHODOC

WHO monograph

4