Neither Allowed To Get Old, Nor Allowed To Stay Young: Urban Kazakhstani Aged Women Negotiate Ageing

Abstract

Critical literature on ageing and old age points to the pervasiveness of ageism, whereas aged people do not celebrate high social status in modern industrial capitalist societies. At the same time, anti-ageing discourses give the agency as well as place the responsibility to “fight” with ageing and old age on the aged people themselves. While above mentioned dictates are more or less global and can be applied to many modern societies, Kazakhstani societal and cultural patterns simultaneously dictate its own expectations regarding the limits, opportunities, and rights of aged people. Sociocultural expectations also greatly depend on gender. Building on the discourse analysis of qualitative interviews with Kazakhstani aged women (59-69 years old) this study points to multiple, complex, and contradictory discourses around old age, ageing, and gender permeating and shaping social lives of aged women in today Kazakhstan. Nevertheless, this study also shows that aged women are not passive recipients of societal discourses about gender and ageing. Instead, they are active participants in discourse production. By talking about caregiving practices that constitute a significant part of their lives and ageing experience, they exploit contradictory societal discourses regarding old age and ageing, and gender roles. This and other self-representation discursive strategies allow them to maintain a sense of control, dignity, self-worth, continuity in their lives, and connectedness to others.