Beyond the home: Informal learning and community participation for older women

In this chapter we explore older women’s informal learning and community participation. The chapter draws on the results of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research project entitled ‘Learning Citizenship: Lifelong Learning, Community and the Women’s Institutes’.1 The key purpose of the study was to investigate the role and impact of informal learning on lifelong learning and citizenship, especially with regard to older women. Two specific aims of the research were to investigate (1) older women’s engagement as active citizens and (2) the relationship between civic engagement and lifelong learning. A significant objective of the study was to increase knowledge of the extent and type of participation in lifelong learning and in active citizenship by older women.