"Ofta är jag icke-existerande" : En kvalitativ intervjustudie av äldre feministiska kvinnors upplevelser av att vara äldre

This thesis explores elderly women´s subjective experiences of being women of age in our capitalistic Swedish society of today. The aim of the research is to illuminate the importance of age-analysis in our contemporary society and within academia, by highlighting age as a social position which intersects with other identity categories such as gender and class. The data collection consists of seven qualitative semi-structured interviews with women within the age of 73-86, who were active feminists during the second wave of feminism. The analysis is primarily based on a theoretical framework consisting of Simone de Beauvoir´s “the Other”, Pierre Bourdieus´s different forms of capitals and “heteronormative lifescript”. The result shows in several different ways how old women are reduced to “the Other”. The findings further show that a narrow framework of norms about elderly women limits the space within which they can cultivate autonomous subjectivities. The result also indicates that the long-lasting experience of feminist awareness and activism have a great impact on the experience of aging. Drawing on Bourdieu, the concept of “feminist habitus” is introduced. The analysis clearly shows how access to social, cultural and symbolic capital is essential to the experience of aging. One of the main conclusions is that capitalist forces form the terms of elderly women´s life space