Markson and Hess - Older Women in The City

Older Women in the City
Author(s): Elizabeth W. Markson and Beth B. Hess

Source: Signs, Vol. 5, No. 3, Supplement. Women and the American City (Spring, 1980), pp.
S127-S142
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173811
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Older Women in the City
Elizabeth W. Markson and Beth B. Hess
The particular vulnerabilities of women and the vicissitudes o

combine to isolate the older woman. This situation, which urban
often exacerbate, is our concern now. Because so many older wom
in cities, often in great difficulty, our subject is hardly a tri
Despite this, and despite ruminations about the "graying of A
old women have received surprisingly little scholarly attention.
Until relatively recently, large numbers of old women in the
elsewhere were scarce. In 1900 the average life expectancy at birt
white women was 48.7, for nonwhite women 33.5. However, in 1
average life expectancy at birth was 77.3 for white, 72.6 for non
females. The proportion of women reaching age 65 has also c
dramatically. By 1973, 82.2 percent of all white and 68.1 percent
nonwhite women could expect to reach age 65. Obviously cha
these mortality patterns have had marked effects on the demogr
1. For relevant interdisciplinary comment about attitudes toward aging, se

Livson, "Cultural Faces of Eve: Images of Women" (paper presented at the annual
of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco, August 1977); Leo S
The Role of the Aged in Primitive Society (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Pr
Tom Sheehan, "Senior Esteem as a Factor of Socio-Economic Complexity," Geront
(1976): 433-40; David Guttman, "The Cross-cultural Perspective: Notes towar
parative Psychology of Aging," in The Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, ed. J.
and K. W. Schaie (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1977); Barbara Turn
Self-Concepts of Older Women" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the
Psychological Association, San Francisco, 1977); Robert LeVine, "Witchcraft an
in a Gusii Community," in Witchcraft and Sorcery in East Africa, ed. J. Middlet
Winter (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963); M. Fortes, The Web of Clanship a
Tallensi (London: Oxford University Press, 1962); E. Westermarck, Ritual and
Morocco (London: Kegan Paul, 1926); Susan Sontag, "The Double Standard of
Saturday Review 23 (September 23, 1972): 29; Valerie I. Fennel, "Age Relations
Change in a Small Town," Gerontologist 17 (October 1977): 405-11.
[Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1980, vol. 5, no. 3 suppl.]
? 1980 by The University of Chicago. 0097-9740/80/0532-0006$01.34
S127
S128 Markson and Hess Older Women in the City
"shape" of our population as well as that of most other ind

nations. In 1900, the ratio of women 65+ to men 65+ was o
every 100. By 1970, this pattern had reversed to 138 wome
every 100 men. By the year 2000, given current age adjusted
rates, there will be 154 women to every 100 men 65+.
A fiction persists that the majority of the old live in nonme
areas or in retirement communities. Yet 63.6 percent of all w
and 60.5 percent of all men 65+ resided in metropolitan ar
United States in 1978. The city is home to 65.3 percent of
female elderly and to 87.1 percent of the Hispanic female elder
more than half of whom (52.7 percent of the black and 56.6 p
the Hispanic women) live in the inner city.2 Numerically, 8.4
the 13.3 million women 65+ and 5.5 million of the 9.1 million men 65+
live in urban areas. About one half of these reside within central cities
rather than on the urban fringe. Old women are concentrated in th
center of cities because they have "aged in place"; their children hav
moved to the suburbs on the urban fringe.3 These large numbers ar
extremely diverse. The older female population in urban centers, lik
the older population in general, is composed of many subgroups. Con-
trary to the public belief that old people become more homogeneous as
they grow older, the opposite actually occurs. In the major cities
Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Los Angeles, fo
example-one can find both wealthy widows (the source of the myth that
women own most of the wealth of America) and women whose resources
can be carried about in a shopping bag.
Despite such diversities, older women in the city share structural
and psychological hazards. In a set of essays in the early 1960s, Irving
Rosow saw the condition of America's aged as a "moral dilemma" for an
affluent society.4 Paradoxically, our very success as a modern industri
nation has created special problems for the elderly. The old suffer, not
only from low incomes and poor health in comparison to younge
people, but from a more pernicious deprivation-loss of function an
status. Rosow listed seven factors that predict the social worth of old
people: control over resources required by younger people for thei
success as adults; possession of needed skills and strategic knowledg
that must be transmitted directly from seniors to juniors; importance a
links to the past and as persons nearest in time to becoming ancestors;
2. Administration on Aging, Special Tabulation, "Women 60+ and 65+ Years Old by
Metropolitan-Non-Metropolitan Residence, Race, and Spanish Origin." photocopie
(Washington, D.C.: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, March 1978).
3. Donald O. Cowgill, "Residential Segregation by Age in American Metropolitan
Areas," Journal of Gerontology 33 (May 1978): 446-53.
4. Irving Rosow, "And Then We Were Old," Trans-Action/Society 2 (January-February
1965): 20-26, and "Old Age: One Moral Dilemma of an Affluent Society," Gerontologist 2
(December 1962): 182-91.
Signs Spring 1980 Supplement S129
membership in an extended family bound by mutual obligations; mem-

bership in stable, small communities with sacred values, in which one
interacts with the same group of people in a variety of roles; participa-
tion in an economy characterized by low productivity, so that the con-
tribution of any productive members is relatively important; and em-
beddedness in groups based on reciprocity, where mutual dependencies
assure that all will be taken care of as a matter of duty. Little has been
published since that would lead us to challenge the essential correctness
of Rosow's formulation. A return to some presumed "golden age" of
family life is neither possible nor desirable for women, on many counts.
Nonetheless, if we apply Rosow's categories to the older population,
women are more disadvantaged than men; among old women, those in
central cities are in many respects most deprived. Let us take each cate-
gory in turn.
Control over resources.-In general, old people in urbanized societies
are relatively powerless to decide their children's occupational and mar-
ital fates. Achieved statuses replace ascribed ones; young people do not
have to wait for a parent's death or generosity in order to secure land,
jobs, or spouses. In any event, these kinds of resources were held by
men, not women. Old women have had to bargain for care through their
influence on their husbands, or, as widows, through claims on rec-
iprocity from their children. Incomes are lowest, and the incidence of
poverty greatest, among the black and Hispanic populations of the inner
cities. For black, female, unrelated individuals 65+, over 68 percent
have incomes below the poverty level. The comparable figure for white
women 65+ is about 30 percent; for males, 44 percent and 24 percent,
respectively.
Possession of needed skills and strategic knowledge.-There is not much
of a market for the skills and knowledge possessed by either men or
women 65+. New technologies and the higher educational levels of suc-
cessive birth cohorts make it difficult for an old person to claim superior
knowledge. No doubt a fund of wisdom resides in the elderly, but few
appreciate it. Among the elderly of the inner city, in addition to those
whom we typically think of as minority women, are the remnant of white
ethnic immigrants of the years before the restrictive legislation of the
1920s. Many of these women never relinquished their "old-country"
expectations of family support nor fully accepted the ways of American
women. Relatively unsophisticated, with minimal schooling, they have
few personal resources to call upon when coping with the normal losses
of age-the death of their husbands especially.5 Minority women, how-
ever, can and do maintain the family in the absence of men. The major-
ity of black grandmothers still provide care for their daughters and their
grandchildren.
5. Helena Znaniecki Lopata, Widowhood in an American City (Cambridge, Mass.:
Schenckman Publishing Co., 1973).
Links to the past and nearness to God.-Few Americans truly

the elderly graced by their nearness to the next world. Wh
beliefs should remain strong-in Asian-American communit
are clear signs of weakening of traditional norms. Thousand
Oriental women live in isolation and poverty in the major
America.6 As for the past, that can be read in history book
remains for an oral tradition. Perhaps the current interest in
will make older family members valuable sources of information
is a far cry from social value by virtue of strategic knowle
females are generally less likely than males to be considered "e
(even on child rearing), their deficit in knowledge is compound
Membership in extended family groups.-The young adu
streamed to the suburbs from 1945 on, did so as nuclear units,
parents, siblings, and other relatives. The extended family my
set of obligations to blood kind, is diluted by achievement value
companionate marriage style. Conjugality replaces consang
sponsibility. The urban elderly fall outside the magic circle of
ity. The exception, again, is the urban black grandmother who m
an extended household, less intentionally than forced by circum
The urban Hispanic grandmother is in a very different situatio
widowed she is likely to make her home with an adult child, b
given minimal family tasks. She is more the guest in the child
than the vital and necessary family member that the black gran
has become.
In fact, living with an adult child is the least popular residenti
choice for most old people, especially if this entails moving from
familiar neighborhood. Most who eventually do make their home in th
house of offspring are very old women, widowed, often physically un
able to maintain a separate residence. Only one in ten old men, and tw
in ten old women, reside with offspring today. The figure has be
steadily declining as Social Security increases have permitted old peopl
to remain independent. The problem of the elderly who do live wi
children is a woman's problem. A daughter is expected to mainta
kinkeeping tasks, and subsequently to make a home for an ailing
widowed parent. Most old people who live with offspring are mothers i
the home of a daughter.
The inner city does, however, contain large numbers of elderl
women with "extended expectations."7 They are usually white ethn
6. Frances Carp and Eunice Katoaka, "Health Care Problems of the Elderly of Sa
Francisco's Chinatown," Gerontologist 16 (February 1976): 30-38.
7. Wayne C. Seelbach and William J. Sauer. "Filial Responsibility Expectations an
Morale among Aged Parents," Gerontologist 17 (December 1977): 492-99. See also Bernar
J. Cosneck, "Family Patterns of Older Widowed Jewish People," Family Coordinator
(1970): 368-73; Elizabeth W. Markson. "Factors in Institutionalization of the Ethnic
Aged." in Ethnicity and Aing, ed. Donald E. Gelfand and Alfred J. Kutzik (New York:
Springer Publishing Co., 1979).
women who have not relinquished the extended family values of their
early socialization. Resentful of children who have not done their duty,
offended when their children treat them as guests in their homes, these
women have, in a real sense, been abandoned by time.
Membership in small, stable communities.-When children left for the
suburbs, most parents preferred to remain in familiar urban neigh-
borhoods-re-creations of village life which were ethnically distinct,
protective, and supportive. There, older residents probably were re-
spected and honored: they held strategic knowledge for dealing with the
outside; they were the first to organize the resources of the community;
and they could still call on family members for displays of power and
authority. As times changed, the elders' control of resources declined,
other types of people began to invade the territory, shops closed, friends
died, buildings changed in their ethnic and racial composition. Indeed,
the old neighborhood could become quite frightening. Whatever local
power derived from the stable neighborhood is now all but lost to the
elderly in the inner city. Since this power typically resided in the males,
the loss of authority is not such a problem for the women, but they are
no longer protected by those who were powerful. Yet to move out of the
known city neighborhood has its dangers. Choices are not simple, and
often there is no choice.
Participation in a low-productivity economy.-High levels of productiv-
ity, automation, and a large reserve labor force all render the economic
contribution of urban old women unnecessary or valueless. Most old
people, regardless of locale, may not want to work; the age of voluntary
retirement has been declining steadily, and not many old people are
expected to take advantage of the recent legislation extending the age of
mandatory retirement. The reasons that old people-except those with
prestigious occupations and high levels of education-would have for
continuing to work are a need for money and for the social network of
friends that most employment provides.8 But neither old men nor old
women are essential to the economy.
The status of retired persons is that of "dependents." The Bureau
of the Census compiles a dependency ratio-the number of nonworkers
(children and old people) to active workers. Over this century and pro-
jected through the first third of the next century, the dependency ratio
has steadily grown, that is, there are increasingly more dependents for
each worker. Being officially designated a dependent and relying on
Social Security for income (a transfer payment from current workers to
former ones and their survivors), the old person is not only an un-
important part of the urban economy but might even be perceived as a
cause of lowered incomes for younger families. Again, this is especially
8. Matilda White Riley and Anne Foner, Aging and Society, vol. 1, An Inventory of
Research Findings (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1968).
true for old women. Only 8.2 percent of women as compar

percent of men 65+ were classed as "in the labor force" in 1
major reason for which was they were "keeping house"; me
other hand, were more likely to be out of the labor force due
ment.
Since men have worked throughout their adult life, they can a
maintain the fiction of having paid for their own retirement th
their contributions into the Social Security system (although, in fa
will take out many times more than they put in). Most women c
no such protective belief. Those women-one thinks primarily of
city white ethnic elderly-who had fulfilled family roles to the ex
of all else will be most likely to be defined as useless. Actually, th
have so considered themselves from the onset of menopause.10 If
women are objects of contempt and ridicule because they evoke in
fears of annihilation by the all-embracing mother, they are now
more vulnerable. The very basis on which they can exercise a clai
care-the reciprocity owed one who has devoted all to others in
periods of need-is precisely the argument most likely to produce
iety on the part of their children.
Embeddedness in mutually dependent groups.-This factor may
dundant for women. The two groups in which they are most em
are family and community, both of which have been discussed ab
summary, elderly, urban women are without the supports gener
these two milieux. The contemporary white urban elderly female
pecially deprived of the attributes of functionality and high statu
Compounding the poor showing on Rosow's factors are four sp
contemporary problems associated with being old and female in th
The first, a major concern of the elderly, is crime. Contrary to
opinion, the National Crime Survey has repeatedly shown that
65 + are victims of personal crime, whether involving violence or t
lower rates than younger people." For example, data from sur
twenty-seven major U.S. cities indicate that age is inversely relat
victimization in crimes of violence such as rape, assault, murd
theft. In 1976, for example, the rate per 1,000 for crimes of viole
59.0 among those 12-24 years old, 40.8 among those 25-34, 2
35-49, 12.2 for 50-64, and 7.6 among those 65+.'2 Burglary, ho
9. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports (Washington, D.C.: G
ment Printing Office, 1975). Unless otherwise cited, all statistics given in this pa
from current published federal government reports.
10. See, e.g., Pauline Bart, "Portnoy's Mother's Complaint," Trans-ActionlS
(1970): 69-74.
11. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-23; Social and
Economic Characteristics of the Older Population, 1974 (Washington, D.C.: Government Print-
ing Office, 1975); U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administra-
tion, Myths and Realities about Crime (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1978).
12. U.S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.
larceny, and automobile theft display the same pattern. The single area
in which the elderly, especially elderly women, are most likely to be
victimized is "larceny with contact"-most often purse snatching. While
generally not considered a serious crime by police, purse snatching often
imposes economic hardship and may also result in serious physical
injuries-as well as psychological insult-to the victims.l3 From a variety
of studies,14 a composite picture of the elderly urban woman victim
emerges. First, more women are victimized than men. This is due to the
greater number of women in the population; rates per 1,000 population
show men at greater proportional risk than women. Second, the victim of
crime is most likely to be living alone, and, if female, to be a widow. The
majority of elderly crime victims are poor as well (in Kansas City their
median income was less than $3,000 per year), live on a fixed income,
and have lived in the same house or apartment for ten or more years.
Often physically handicapped (as were 22 percent of elderly Kansas City
victims), they are often also members of racial minority groups. In the
Kansas City study, for example, 22 percent of the elderly victims were
black-a significantly higher percentage than the proportion of black
people over 50 in the population of that city.
From the offenders' perspective, the elderly are not particularly
attractive victims; they are too poor. In Kansas City,15 interviews with
offenders indicated that greed, fear, and speed were the main factors
governing choice of victim. The old, while relatively easy marks, are
undesirable targets precisely because they have few resources. All other
factors being equal, offenders indicated they would prefer younger,
more affluent victims. A 1977 study of crime against the elderly in New
York City found that the criminal who preys on the elderly has a model
age of about 16 years, with those who victimize old women younger than
those who victimize men!16 As many as half the inner-city urban women,
it has been estimated, live alone in areas with high rates of adolescent
truancy; unemployment-particularly among 16-20 years old-with
higher than average concentrations of people; declining property
values; and significant breakdowns of traditional business and retail
13. James B. Richardson, "Purse Snatch-Robbery's Ugly Stepchild," in Crime and the
Elderly, ed. Jack Goldsmith (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1976). See also John
Tighe, "A Survey of Crimes against the Elderly," Police Chief 44 (February 1977): 18-19.
14. Midwest Research Institute, Crimes against Aging Americans: The Kansas City Study
(Kansas City: Midwest Research Institute, 1976); D. A. Grossman, Reducing the Impact of
Crime against the Elderly-a Survey and Appraisal of Existing and Potential Programs (New York:
Florence V. Burden Foundation, 1977); J. E. Burkhardt, Crime and the Elderly-Their Per-
ceptions and Their Reactions (Rockville, Md.: National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Microfiche Program, 1977).
15. Midwest Research Institute, chaps. 2, 3, 4, 5.
16. Grossman, pp. 1-42.
patterns.17 The suburban elderly of either sex are unlikely

timized. Although they may have more property to steal, the
which they live are generally more affluent and police surveilla
thorough.
The amount of crime against the old of either sex has been
exaggerated by the media. Indeed, the mass media perpetuat
tion of the powerlessness of older women. A survey of TV vio
1976-a bloody year for television with an average of 9.
episodes per hour-demonstrated that the most frequent vic
children, old women, nonwhite women, and lower-class women.
killers were most often men, murder victims were most freque
poor urban women. Among heavy television viewers, a greater
personal risk of victimization was observed. Old women's alr
pirically grounded fear is thereby exacerbated.'8 Taught th
their lives to be less assertive, less physically active, and more
than men, women are more fearful precisely because they
themselves as potentially being overpowered by others.
According to a 1974 survey by Louis Harris et al.,'9 fear of
varies markedly with both age and sex. Although men at an
more frequent crime victims, among men 18-54 years old only
expressed concern about crime as a "serious problem." The patt
women is different; at every age, women have a greater fear o
than do men (20 percent of all women as opposed to 11 perc
men). This fear increases with age-from 10 percent amon
18-54 years old to 18 percent among those 55-64 years old
percent among those 65+. Most fearful of crime, according to
cent study, are elderly women with limited education who
especially in apartments. Most of these women are especifically
ened of going out at night and indicated that they are forced
their social activities accordingly.2"
A 1977 study by Patterson2' indicated that elderly women h
greater fear of being robbed or assaulted than do men. Part of
relates to marital and family status. It is interesting to note th
who lived with others were only slightly more fearful than m
women living alone were highly fearful. Territoriality, that is,
to which older people of either sex marked their dwelling space
17. Midxwest Research Institute; U.S. Bureau of the Census (see n. 11).
18. G. Gerbner and M. F. Eleey, "TV Violence Profile Number 8-the Hig
Journal of Communication 27 (Spring 1977): 171-80.
19. Louis Harris and Associates, Inc., The Myth and Reality (f Aging in Americ
for the National Council oni the Aging (Washington, D.C(.: National Council on
1975).
20. Burkhardt.
21. Arthur Patterson, "Territorial Behavior and Fear of Crime in the Elderly," Po
Chief 44 (February 1977): 26-29.
signs Spring 1980 Supplement S135
own through use of protective surveillance devices, fences, signs, or wel-

come mats and initials on doors or chimneys, was a mitigating factor for
men but not for women. While men in general were more "territorial"
than women, men who were high on territoriality were significantly less
fearful than were nonterritorial men. For women, however, high or low
territoriality was relatively unimportant in reducing fear.
Both income and race are significant factors in fear of crime as well.
Only 21 percent of whites 65+ as compared to 43 percent blacks22 stated
that fear of crime was a serious problem. The greater fear of blacks is
related to their generally lower socioeconomic position. For both races,
fear of being robbed or attacked on the street was associated with in-
come; 27 percent of those 65+ with incomes of less than $7,000, 17
percent of the 65+ with incomes between $7,000-$14,999, and 15 per-
cent of the 65+ with incomes of $15,000 or more saw the danger of
being robbed or attacked on the street as a serious problem.23 Clearly,
minority group status, low income, and being female interact to produce
a high level of anxiety about crime. If partially unwarranted by the
statistics, this anxiety is very real to those who have been dislocated by
urban change.
Measures of societal intervention-such as personalized transporta-
tion;24 escort services;25 within-neighborhood relocation from buildings
with vacant apartments and inadequate lighting into well-lit, more
heavily traveled areas;26 and increased police protection27-have been
proposed. The majority of cities have not implemented these sugges-
tions. Rather, such individual solutions, as educational programs
targeted at the elderly, have received more publicity and, of course,
consumed fewer urban resources. It offends that even one old woman
should be attacked, and even more that so many should live in fe
attack. Nor is it any boon to race relations in America that the
publicized cases-again, despite substantial evidence to the contr
involve black assailants and white victims. Elderly female black victi
are not nearly as "newsworthy."
The second contemporary problem that haunts the urban, ag
woman is widowhood. Because of the increased life expectancy
women, the majority can expect to spend some portion of their last y
as widows. While the vast majority of men 65+ are married and l
with spouse (over 75 percent), it is a minority (37.6 percent) of wom
who are married and living with a spouse. About 52.5 percent of
22. Harris, p. 133.

23. Ibid., pp. 130-32.
24. Burkhardt.
25. Grossman.
26. Ibid.
27. Burkhardt.
women 65+ in 1975 were widowed, 2.6 percent were divorced,

5.8 percent were single, and the remainder were separated
absent spouse. This difference becomes more marked with age
those 75+, 68.2 percent of men as compared to 22.3 perce
women were living with their spouses. Even among the very
difference persists; among men 85+, only slightly over two-f
widowed, while almost four-fifths of women of that age are w
Over one-half of elderly widows live alone or with non
Elderly widows are among the most poverty stricken of all p
the smallest budget for housing and other services. Yet, l
people, widows are a diverse lot. The inner-city widow deserv
note. In poverty areas of New York City, for example-area
have the highest incidence of crime, greatest number of w
cipients, and largest amount of deteriorated housing-the h
cidence of single person households is found among the most
ment of the white population, that is, older people in their 7
many of whom are widows.29 Then, too, most of the elderly
housing are widowed women; old men who are alone drift to h
rooming houses. Apparently, older women are more used to c
themselves, preparing their own meals and maintaining t
households; men prefer the convenience of restaurants and ho
the absence of old women!30 Ethnic minorities of either sex are under-
represented among the elderly in public housing.31 Whether this is a
result of different familial practices, of discrimination, or of a combina-
tion of the two is, however, uncertain. Another factor may be reluctance
to claim entitlements or lack of skills in negotiating bureaucracies.
At special risk are Hispanic old women. In New York City, they live
in the worst housing conditions, have the smallest incomes, the least
education, and the most health problems.32 Asian-Americans, who have
far less visibility in the city than do members of other minority groups,
may be even worse off; used to a lifetime of ghettoization, they are
unable to manipulate the existing power structure to obtain needed
services. Fear and mistrust of the dominant society also retard their
ability to obtain that which is theirs under existing social legislation pro-
visions.33 The white ethnic widow is also at a disadvantage.34 Like other
28. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, Series P-20. nos. 33. 105,
255. and 287; Series P-25. no. 607.
29. Marjorie Cantor, Study of the Inner-City Elderly (New York: Office of the Aging,
1978).
30. Frances Carp, Patterns of Living and Housing of Middle Aged and Older Adults
(Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1966).
31. Ibid.
32. Cantor.
33. Richard A. Kalish and Sam Yuen, "Americans of East Asian Ancestry: Aging
the Aged." Gerontologist 11 (Spring 1971): 36-47.
34. Lopata.
aged and poor isolates, she is afraid of her living environment. A special
such environment for approximately 600,000 old people is the "single
room occupancy" (SRO) dwellings, most often hotels and rooming
houses. While predominantly male, the inhabitants of these units share
many of the characteristics of urban women living alone in the inner city.
They are often physically sicker, psychologically more disadvantaged,
poorer and more lonely than most of their age peers.35
The third contemporary problem of the urban, elderly woman is
her relationship with her children. This is linked to, and modifies,
Rosow's category of the extended family. Despite periodic warnings that
the family is dead and that the old are forgotten isolates left behind by
their upwardly mobile children, data from various surveys are strikingly
similar in proving the contrary. Over 80 percent of those 65+ have living
children or grandchildren, and about 80 percent of these see one of
their children at least once a week. The same proportion live within a
day's travel from one or more offspring. Expectations for filial re-
sponsibility differ for men and women. For example, among the inner
city, predominantly black elderly in Philadelphia, old women were
significantly more likely than men to feel that children should take care
of parents who were physically dependent or who did not desire to live
alone. Yet three-fourths of both sexes felt that financial support of aged
parents was the responsibility of government, not of children. Nor did
either sex feel that a major reason for having children was to ensure
one's own support and care in old age.36
Helping patterns and the exchange of goods and services vary, as
one would expect, according to the needs and resources of family mem-
bers. Among the inner-city elderly of New York City, for example, more
than three-fourths of old people reported giving help to their children
while 87 percent reported receiving some form of assistance such as
gifts, crisis intervention, or help with chores from their children.37 In
this sample, those of lowest social status were most likely to rely on their
children. The more disabled, too, received more help than did the
healthier. While blacks and whites showed similar helping patterns, His-
panic aged were most likely to see, telephone, and help their children
and to receive help in return. Compared to less than two-fifths of the
elderly blacks and whites, almost half of the Hispanic aged relied solely
on kin for their support networks. National data provided by Louis
Harris indicates a generally high level of assistance from parents to
35. Joyce Stephens, Loners, Losers and Lovers: A Sociological Study of the Aged Tenants of a
Slum Hotel (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977).
36. Wayne C. Seelbach, "Gender Differences in Expectations for Filial Re-
sponsibility," Gerontologist 17 (October 1977): 421-25.
37. Marjorie Cantor, "The Configuration and Intensity of the Informal Support Sys-
tem in a New York City Elderly Population" (paper presented at the annual meeting of the
Gerontological Society, New York, November 1976).
children: three-quarters of the blacks and nine in ten of white

that they gave their children or grandchildren gifts; some
than six in ten of both races indicated that they helped out w
one was ill, and about half said they take care of grandchildre
pronounced differences exist among blacks and whites on giv
advice or specific counsel on bringing up children or running
jobs-black old people are much more likely to act in thes
capacities than are whites. Older widowed females of eithe
more likely to be receiving rather than giving gifts of money;
these exchanges is generally from the less to the more nee
members.
Expectations of support from adult children vary not only by in-
come but by characteristics such as ethnicity and religion, as we said
earlier. For urban and nonurban women, the preferred pattern of re-
lationships with one's children and grandchildren appears to be "in-
timacy at a distance."38 Parents and children are likely to be unhappy
when they are forced into contact with one another; they are also more
likely to have high morale when intergenerational contacts and ex-
changes are freely chosen rather than imposed.39
Finally, a fourth contemporary problem for the older woman in the
city is her erratic access to urban virtues. To be sure, the city has better
transportation, more social and health services, more recreational and
cultural facilities than nonmetropolitan areas.40 However, not all urban
women are able to enjoy such advantages. Low income elderly, for
example, are more bothered by the costs of buses or subways than are
people of higher incomes.41 Not all public routes go where one wants to;
cabs must be used. Subway stairs are long and steep, and the connecting
tunnels can be fear-inducing. Lack of public transportation is also
viewed differentially according to socioeconomic status: 17 percent of
the elderly with incomes of less than $7,000, 11 percent of those with
incomes of between $7,000 and $14,999, and 3 percent of those with
incomes of $15,000 or more felt that lack of public transportation was a
major problem.42 The convenience of facilities, such as transportation, is
determined by many factors other than physical location. Economic and
38. Ethel Shanas, "Family Kin Network and Aging: A Cross-Cultural Perspective,"
Journal of Marriage and the Family 35 (1973): 505-11.
39. Beth B. Hess and Joan M. Waring, "Parent and Child in Later Life: Rethinking
the Relationship." in Child Influences on Marital and Family Interaction, ed. Richard M. Lerner
and Graham B. Spanier (New York: Academic Press, 1978).
40. See, e.g., E. G. Youmans, Aging Patterns in a Rural and Urban Area of Kentucky
(Lexington: University of Kentucky, Agricultural Experimental Station, 1963); C. I.
Phihlblad and H. A. Rosencranz, The Health of Older People in the Small Town (Columbia:
University of Missouri, 1967).
41. Harris, p. 143.
42. Ibid., p. 145.
physical mobility and education are key elements for the old that dictate
the perceived convenience of the amenities of the city.43 The inner-city
woman, in midst of riches of resources, will experience paucity.
Benefits of the Urban Setting
Yet, for all the disadvantages of urban life in old age, there is even
greater isolation among the rural elderly and those in suburbia.44 If
nothing else, cities do have mass transportation facilities, which, in fact,
are more accessible than those in suburbia. The old woman in the suburb
or small town will have greater difficulty than her urban counterpart in
securing social services that are typically located in areas with high con
centrations of elderly. In rural areas, transportation to services or o
service to the client is a major problem.45 Meals-on-wheels, for example
cannot operate over great distances, vans providing medical services
must travel hundreds of miles for a few patients. In the suburbs, th
older woman who can no longer drive is dependent on the assistance of
relatives or the goodwill of volunteers. However, in the city, psychologi-
cal and physical barriers may be present even though the service is there
City life also permits a flexibility not afforded by suburbs or small
towns. The very surplus of the city permits highly individualistic life-
styles, the most notable of which, perhaps, is the shopping-bag lady
Living in the interstices of the city off the surpluses of the metropolis,
the shopping-bag lady has no fixed place of residence and carries all her
belongings in one or more shopping bags.46 While their lives are hard,
uncomfortable, and certainly "deviant," they are able to survive precisely
because of the abundance of the city whose garbage is their riches.
Old people, as do persons of any age, prefer to be with their peers.
Their common age speaks of a lifetime of shared experiences, of similar
socialization to a disappearing world, and of mutual concerns in the
present.47 Even though one's own type of young people has left and
different set moved in, other old people have remained. Old women are
43. Ibid., pp. 174-99.

44. See, e.g., U.S. Congress, Senate, Special Committee on Aging, Older Americans in
Rural Areas: Hearings before the Special Committee on Aging, 95th Cong., 2d sess., 1977.
45. U.S. Congress, House, Select Committee on Aging, Problems of Maine's Rural El-
derly: Hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care, 94th Cong., 2d sess.
1976.
46. Jennifer Hand, "Shopping-Bag Ladies in Urban Areas" (paper presented at the
annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, New York, September
1976).
47. Beth B. Hess, "Friendship," in Aging and Society, vol. 3, A Sociology of Age Stratifica-
tion, ed. Matilda White Riley, Marilyn E. Johnson, and Anne Foner (New York: Russell
Sage Foundation, 1972).
more likely than old men to have intimate friends, confidants

vide assistance, solace, and understanding. The urban setting i
ways conducive to friendship; there are more people to c
friends, distance is minimized, and the opportunities to share e
are enhanced. Rural and small-town life moves at a relatively
prized by those accustomed to it but frustrating to people imb
more selective and segmented system of social relationshi
peculiar compartmentalization of friendships and social con
characterizes many relationships in the city permits one to en
with specific shared interests, a luxury often not possible in
or rural setting in which one is "stuck" with those life-long ac
who are at hand.
For housing project dwellers, slum tenants, and other old peop
residing in the inner city, isolation is not as complete as it appears. Th
are social networks, though they may seem limited in scope and durati
This aspect of urban life-a kind of organized social segregation-h
been viewed as yet another indication of "shallowness" by the mo
romantic commentators on the urban scene. However, it is undoubted
related to the general characteristics of urban social life, to the "blase
attitude" that Georg Simmel saw, in which people seek interaction for
specific, and reasonable, purposes.49 Too much social contact, especiall
with people unlike one's self in ethnicity, education, race, income, an
preferences, may be intrusive.
Finally, the majority of old people value independence. Urban
women are no exception. The late Margaret Blenkner, who organiz
and studied the effects of protective service projects on the urban el-
derly, commented succinctly: "If an old person wants to stay out of a
institution, he/she should stay away from friends and family."50 The
selective social interaction of many of the inner-city elderly could th
represent a continued drive to do just that-to remain at liberty, how-
ever circumscribed.
* * *
We have written more a

woman than about her plea
solutions, more about her su
are resilient, even heroic. Pow
frightened by crime and ne
cope; they fight back. Thei
48. Fennel (n. 1 above), pp. 405-1
49. Georg Simmel, "The Metropolis
ed. Kurt Wolff (New York: Free Pre
50. Personal communication (1968).
loneliness and freedom, of abandonment and

we have given those who want to better thos
private action, the materials to see more clea
remedy, and the strengths they might nurt
Gerontology Center and Departme

Boston University (M
Department of Social S
County College of Mor
Photograph by Mel Rosenthal

Markson and Hess - Older Women in The City

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Older Women in the City

Author(s): Elizabeth W. Markson and Beth B. Hess

Elizabeth W. Markson and Beth B. Hess

The particular vulnerabilities of women and the vicissitudes o

1. For relevant interdisciplinary comment about attitudes toward aging, se

"shape" of our population as well as that of most other ind

membership in an extended family bound by mutual obligations; mem-

Links to the past and nearness to God.-Few Americans truly

true for old women. Only 8.2 percent of women as compar

patterns.17 The suburban elderly of either sex are unlikely

own through use of protective surveillance devices, fences, signs, or wel-

22. Harris, p. 133.

women 65+ in 1975 were widowed, 2.6 percent were divorced,

children: three-quarters of the blacks and nine in ten of white

Benefits of the Urban Setting

43. Ibid., pp. 174-99.

more likely than old men to have intimate friends, confidants

We have written more a

loneliness and freedom, of abandonment and

Gerontology Center and Departme

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