Building global solidarity for older women’s access to economic justice

On Monday 6th December we held an event to discuss barriers to accessing economic rights older women face in low and middle-income countries, and policy solutions.

An exciting panel of experts on women’s economic justice, income security and decent work convened to unpick the challenges that older women experience, and to pinpoint the crucial steps that policymakers must now take to ensure these injustices are addressed in the final decade of the 2030 Agenda.

This online policy webinar used Age International’s new report ‘Older women: the hidden workforce’ as a starting point for discussion. We created a spacewhere stakeholders can reflect on and respond to the barriers, concerns and aspirations highlighted by older women in low and middle-income countries, deepening our collective thinking on how to strengthen the UK Government and international actors’ policy response.

Globally, older women in all their diversity are contributing unrecognised yet critical support to their families, communities and economies through their paid and unpaid work. The lives of all women are constrained by gender-based inequalities, but older women also face age discrimination and their contributions to their communities’ wellbeing and to the economy tend to be invisible to policy makers. This is as true in low and middle-income countries as it is in countries like the UK; and in poorer contexts, women are far less likely to have access to a pension or healthcare as they age.

Panellists included:

Professor Diane Elson, Emeritus Professor, University of Essex

Kate Horstead, Policy Advisor, Age International

Silke Staab, Research Specialist, UN Women

Aura Sevilla, Focal Person in Southeast Asia and Older Workers, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)

Andrew Kavala, Country Director, Malawi Network for Older Persons Organizations (MANEPO)

Ann Keeling, Chair, Age International (Chair)