Gender Inequalities in Family Life of the Elderly in Tehran (Statement of a Cultural Problem)

Social and demographic changes during recent years have had an important effect on various aspects of social and family lives of the elderly in Iran. Cultural backwardness (cultural lag) is among the issues that have been instrumental in creating a number of problems for these people. Higher probability of death for husband and more common widowhood of wife is the expected outcome of the dominant marriage and mortality patterns in Iran. Prior to these changes the widowed elderly women used to live in extended families and enjoyed the lifelong protection of the clan and were rarely subjected to the kinds of vulnerabilities and deprivations that they are exposed to these days. Modernization and globalization processes in today’s society have brought about the age of the nuclear family structure, high mobility and pursue of individual goals and self interests. These changes in conjunction with existing, and relatively stable, traditional cultural values and civil and legal limitations have made such protections almost impossible and have left elderly women in an especially vulnerable position. This article is an attempt to address this issue. Using data on living arrangements and health statuses of a representative sample of 527 elderly men and women from Tehran, the findings clearly show that aging and the relevant living arrangement problems and difficulties stemming from it are mainly a female problem in Tehran. Elderly women live alone more than elderly men, are less capable economically, and are less equipped in dealing with the problems that these changes have brought about.