For a few weeks, months, maybe years, the central theme has been women, violence towards us in all its expressions and levels; girls stolen from childhood, young women who disappear in the blink of an eye, women murdered by their partners. We all listen to it, and I think we all feel it (some more than others). But, we speak little of other women, perhaps forgotten by a supposed silence; imposed by a youthful society and social networks.
In this fight and call to union, where are the older women? And I don''t mean the women who have fought for decades and who remain active in their fight, I mean all the others. Today, there are around 15.4 million over 60 years of age in Mexico, of which 60% are women, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
Women who have had stories similar to those told in the media throughout their lives and today remain invisible (or less visible). Being a woman and being over 60 years old in Mexico condemns in other ways. Violence may be of different nature and others the perpetrator''s, but it is no less prevalent.
Older adults are susceptible to being violated, but when comparing older men and women: women have higher rates of physical and sexual abuse, as indicated in the Survey on Abuse of Older Adults in the Federal District 2006. Whether if it''s a woman caring for grandchildren, the sick, or even other older adults, they are subject to their role as caregivers with no way out. We take for granted that grandmothers will take care of us, but who cares for them? There is a gender perspective in these cases as well.
Violence against senior women is the result of the simple fact of being a woman and being older. These social, cultural, economic, structural, and even family factors are mixed and enhanced in particular ways at this stage. It is the constant reproduction of a patriarchal family, where men have power over women; and where old age accentuates their vulnerability to them. Older women tend to have a worse financial situation; the work was mostly unpaid or informal domestic so that social protection exists only through their husbands (if any); worse health and have higher levels of disability. They don''t have the benefit of retirement, in any sense.
(María José Pardo)