'No matter what I did I would still end up in the same position': age as a factor defining older women's experience of labour market participation

摘要

This article explores age as a factor defining the labour market experience of older women. Drawing upon work histories it argues that discrimination on the grounds of age is bound up with gender; race and class. Older women described how all three categories had structured their working lives, with occupational and sectoral segregation underpinning a legacy of disadvantage. Intersectionality provides a tool to explore the interaction of social divisions over the life course, in preference to those privileging the instability and diversity of social identities. Although the testimonies of older women underline the need to situate their experiences within a unified system characterized by capitalist economic relations. The research enables analysis of the workers perceptions of the changing nature of work and the way that age can be constructed in terms of advantage and disadvantage within specific occupations and sectors already defined in terms of gender and race.