ABSTRACT
In developing countries, the vociferous demands of younger population cohorts for education, health services, jobs, food, and shelter deflected attention from problems faced by the burgeoning numbers of older persons, particularly where elders are isolated and unorganized. Except for studies on the diseases of old age, particularly psychological ills, not a great deal of information on midlife and older women has been published. The American Association of Retired Persons has been one of the most important agencies in the healthy aging approach both in the United States and in addressing some of the particular problems facing older women in the Third World. The ethnological and anthropolgical sources highlight the increased freedom of action that elderly status confers on women. In many cultures, women become much less subject to male authority and may engage in a variety of activities not permitted to younger women.
