Pensioners

Older Women

As pensioners, we’ve put in our time. We’ve raised kids and kept house. Also we’ve served our husbands, dinner and sex, for decades. If that were not enough, we’ve also gone out, not with any great career in mind, but for waged work to help meet expenses. We’ve suffered low wages and bad working conditions. Now we want to have some free time for ourselves. We’ve had enough of child-care and cooking the family dinner, cleaning up other people’s messes. For most of our work in the past we got no wage, but we don’t want to repeat that experience as grannies. We want a decent pension, whether we paid into a scheme or not. We want reliable medical care. We want safe, convenient and free public transport. Like other women we want a social life with our peers. In other words, we want to change the world. That’s why we’ll be joining the Global Women’s Strike on 8 March. A grandmother from the US now living in London, England

Reasons why I am striking: I'm almost 69, have been an activist for social change since the 70s, now living in the US. I've organized with women in a network of mainly younger women, a network fighting against ageism, among other tortures, in its own ranks first of all, which has prevented us older dollies being separated off into a ghetto of our own. Now I am a grandmother for the first time, and find this is a grand thing to be. I'm striking to break the ageist stereotypes of grandmothers as useless, unproductive, sexless women who are, however, counted on to help raise our grandchildren. I am very pleased to do this work with/for my grandchild, but the general view is still that the work of taking care of children is simply a natural exercise which is less skilled, requires less energy and is therefore less important than any other job out there, even flipping burgers.

I don't want my granddaughter, or anyone's granddaughter, to go through the devaluation of mothering work that I've survived, where the pressure to get a "career" (promoted by upwardly mobile mainstream feminists) robs you of your time and involvement with your child. All of us mothers and grandmothers suffer from the fact that housework, including raising children, has been unrecognized as work worthy of pay. Since the work has been treated as worthless, and we are identified with this non-work, our lives are seen as worthless. Our lives - our economic, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual upkeep and development - are constantly under attack, ignored, dismissed, insulted, by governments' policies. Though a former teacher, I have no pension in my own right; I spent 18 years raising a family, years which the US government calls my "zero years"; my social security payment [pension] is $450 a month, not enough to live on on my own. So I'm striking for a new millennium which values all women's work and all women's lives! A grandmother in Los Angeles

Pensioners do not reflect the contribution women make and have made throughout our lives to the economy and the community in unwaged and waged work. This is why so many of us are on income support. Women never retire but sometimes we get very tired; with the continuing work and tired of being undervalued.

There is a proposal to pay grandmothers to care for grandchildren when their mothers work outside the home. Many of us are doing this already and feel we have no choice because of the lack of affordable, quality childcare. Women who are in low waged jobs can pay their mothers the rate for the jobs. Some can’t pay anything. If we were paid by the government, some of us would welcome it, but it’s unlikely that we’d get a fair rate.

Many of us do not live near our families and couldn’t do this work anyway but we are entitled to enjoy some time with our grandchildren. This often means looking after them in school holidays which can be too much for some of us. We are also entitled to some fun with our partners and/or friends. Most of us have pensions which barely cover necessities let alone participating in leisure activities or visiting our grandchildren. When our daughters are paid for their caring work and our pensions are increased to acknowledge our past and present contribution to our communities, we can negotiate childcare arrangements from a position of mutual financial independence.

After the death of my husband l received a pension based on my husband’s contributions. A new law due to come into effect in April 2000 will cut this pension right for women by 50%. This was not widely publicised. It won’t affect my pension but l want other women to know about it and for the law to be scrapped.

I separated from my husband some time before he died and when he retired l did not get a share of his good pension. I was entitled though, after all he worked long hours but was only able to because l worked even longer hours looking after him and our children, cooking, cleaning, maintaining him with sex work, emotional work to enable him to keep going.

I’m still supporting my daughters, emotionally and practically as they juggle work at home and in their jobs. I don’t want to be paid and so feel pressured to do child care regularly. I’d rather my daughters are paid so that they and l can choose. I want to be paid in my own right for a lifetime of continuing work. A grandmother from Hyde, nr Manchester, England

All Women Count: Older Women more information

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