Conceptualising older women’s wellbeing at work across the life course

Drew, Hilary; Edge, Clare

Abstract

The European Research Network: Older Women’s Workplace Wellbeing was was founded in 2021 at the University of Salford, bringing together a diverse group of European female researchers with shared interests in older women, ageing, demographic change and the policy implications. Key areas of interest for the group include structural, social and health inequalities, the needs of older women in the workplace, stereotypes, prejudice and identity
and the challenges for older women within the workplace environment. One overarching area of interest to the research network is: what are the barriers and facilitators
to older women’s workplace wellbeing across the life course? Recent evidence suggests life stress accumulation over the life course disproportionately negatively impacts wellbeing,
cognition and health in older women (Gómez-Gallego & Gómez-García, 2019; Senft Miller et al., 2021). This stress comes from both the private and work spheres and is well documented
in the literature. This developmental paper outlines planned research examining Older Women’s Wellbeing at
Work across the Life course to be undertaken by the members of the European research network. The overarching aim of disseminating this paper is to generate some discussion around the proposed research which will aid the research team in their research design.
This paper is structured as follows: the first section provides some context to the older female life course, with a focus on employment and biological factors. The second section presents some of the literature around wellbeing and older women. The final sections outline the proposed study, its aims and expected outcomes

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: British Academy of Management
• Start Date: Sep 1, 2023
• End Date: Sep 6, 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 28, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 28, 2023
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/11140278