ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the sub sequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the largest component of the elderly population, yet one that has been ignored, overlooked or subsumed within a more general, and male, narrative of old age old women. The historical study of ageing, just as of women, is an exercise which demonstrates how, to echo the language of the Second Wave Feminist, the personal becomes the political. An individual's experience of old age is shaped by her or his class, the period of history lived, and through gender. For some women, the final stage of life is a period of unprecedented freedom and autonomy, while for others it is the rock upon which their physical health founders. One of the most promising new areas of research is the place and function of personal piety and organised religion in the lives of older women.
