Mother Time

Fifteen original essays open up a novel area of inquiry: the distinctively ethical dimensions of women's experiences of and in aging. Contributors distinguished in the fields of feminist ethics and the ethics of aging explore assumptions, experiences, practices, and public policies that affect women's well-being and dignity in later life. The book brings to the study of women's aging a reflective dimension missing from the empirical work that has predominated to date. Ethical studies of aging have so far failed to emphasize gender. And feminist ethics has neglected older women, even when emphasizing other dimensions of 'difference.' Finally work on aging in all fields has focused on the elderly, while this volume sees aging as an extended process of negotiating personal and social change.

This collection of original essays opens up a novel area of inquiry: the distinctively ethical dimension of women's experiences of aging. Fifteen distinguished contributors here explore assumptions, experiences, practices, and public policies that affect women's well-being and dignity in later life. The book brings to the study of women's aging a reflective dimension missing from the empirical work that has predominated to date. Ethical studies of aging have so far failed to emphasize gender. And feminist ethics has neglected older women, even when emphasizing other dimensions of 'difference.' Finally work on aging in all fields has focused on the elderly, while this volume sees aging as an extended process of negotiating personal and social change.

Part 1 IntroductionMargaret Urban Walker
Part 2 Acknowledgments
Part 3 Introduction
Part 4 I: Looks
Chapter 5 1 "There Are No Old Venuses": Older Women's Responses To Their Aging Bodies
Chapter 6 2 Miroir, Memoir, Mirage: Appearance, Aging , and Women
Part 7 II: Lives
Chapter 8 3 Virtues and Age
Chapter 9 4 Unplanned Obsolescence: Some Reflections On Aging
Chapter 10 5 Stories of My Old Age
Chapter 11 6 Getting Out Of Line: Alternatives To Life As A Career
Chapter 12 7 Death's Gender
Part 13 III: Looking At Health Care
Chapter 14 8 Old Women Out Of Control: Some Thoughts On Aging, Ethics, and Psychosomatic Medicine
Chapter 15 9 Menopause: Taking the Cure or Curing the Takes?
Chapter 16 10 Religious Women, Medical Settings, and Moral Risk
Chapter 17 11 Age, Sex, and Resource Allocation
Part 18 IV: Living Arrangements
Chapter 19 12 Aging Fairly: Feminist and Disability Perspectives on Intergenerational Justice
Chapter 20 13 Home Care, Women, and Aging: A Case Study of Injustice
Chapter 21 14 Caring for Ourselves: Peer Care in Autonomous AgingRobin Firoe
Chapter 22 15 Age Segregated housing as a Moral Problem: An Exercise in Rethinking Ethics
Part 23 Index
Part 24 About the Contributors