Time is running out: sign our petition calling for older women's rights today

With less than a week to go before the closing deadline, Age International is urging the public to sign its petition calling on the UK Government to support older women’s rights across the globe.

With over 7000 signature, we are so close to reaching a government response to the petition, and encouraging as many people as possible to sign it to ensure women around the world are given the support they need, and no woman is left behind.

Age International is urging the UK Government to give more support to older women living in some of the world’s poorest countries. As part of the bid for gender equality, our petition is calling on the Government to explicitly include older women in its plans for the new International Development Strategy which outlines the UK’s role in supporting economic, social and political improvement in low and middle income countries over the next decade.

Our latest report, Older Women: the hidden workforce, highlights the systemic failures many older women in the poorest countries face on a daily basis, which consistently undermine their efforts to survive and live with dignity.

It features in-depth interviews with older women and their communities in Malawi and Ethiopia, illuminating the multiple barriers many women face when accessing their rights – including to decent work and income security – due to ageism, sexism and power structures in their local communities and wider society.

The report illustrates how globally, older women contribute critical paid and unpaid work. In low and middle-income countries, older women are supporting children, family and friends, yet due to the low status they hold in their communities their rights and needs are not recognised or met.

Chris Roles, Managing Director at Age International, said: “Our report shows that families, communities and economies in some of the poorest countries are often held together by the relentless work so many older women are contributing. But due to gender inequality and discrimination, women in these countries are inadequately supported.

“We need the UK public to take action and support international women’s rights by signing our petition to urge the Government to do more to tackle gender inequality in older age. 

“We are so close to reaching a Government response to the petition, but we still need as many people as possible to sign it to ensure that women in all their diversity around the world are given the support they need so that no woman is left behind.”