ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that public policy with respect to the elderly has not been gender-neutral —either in the past or, more crucially, the present. It begins with a few demographic observations and describes what may be called the "gerontological gender gap". Most gerontologists were slow to realize that this young-old distinction was in most respects a gender difference, and that gender differences often cut across age lines. Perhaps most distressing of all, the very successes of the aging establishment in having lifted so many elderly out of poverty and into self-sufficiency might have blunted further efforts to improve the conditions of the several million old people—primarily women—who remain ill-fed, ill-housed, ill-clothed, and just plain ill. The chapter discusses the differential impact by gender of public policy—past and present—in the areas of income maintenance, health care, and housing. It concludes with an analysis of the ideological foundations of recent federal policy formulations and their consequences for the elderly.
