Age and gender in women's accounts of their health: interviews with women in South Wales.

In-depth interviews with 35 women in a working-class community in South Wales suggest that there are generational differences both in the ways women talk about health and in their health experiences. These are linked with women's differing social circumstances; changes over time in the ways in which health and ill health are explained; and the physical changes which are an unavoidable part of embodiment. The ability to perform their roles with respect to social reproduction was a key element in women's definitions of their health. Older women talked about arthritis and the ways in which it was a challenge to keep doing things while younger women talked about the stress they felt in juggling the roles of mother, wife, daughter and worker. Younger women were also more likely to talk about the problematic nature of gender relations and high levels of unemployment. Age thus structures women's health problems and the ways they explain them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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