ABSTRACT
Gender status is central in explaining differences in the economic and health issues that tire aged confront. A more comprehensive and integrated health and social service delivery system is needed by older women as well as by all individuals who provide caregiving within and between the generations in the growing number of three and four generational families. Dependency on Social Security as the primary, and often only, source of income is a major factor in older women's precarious economic standing. One in three unmarried older women receiving Social Security depends on it for more than 90 percent of her income. A primary factor in older women’s precarious economic status is their lifelong responsibility for family. Lodged primarily in the family, socially defined as the private sphere, women have been responsible for providing care and nurturing to the very young, very old, and disabled in a social and political context that romanticizes family caregiving activities.
