practical living
the economy, being participants, being
digitally connected, having a voice on
policy, and overcoming isolation. It seems
to be that older women are really bursting
to contribute to our community.
Did you find many issues that are
specific to women?
Isolation came through in Vital Signs
as well: one in 10 people over 60 were
experiencing isolation and loneliness. We
also wanted to look into that from an older
woman’s point of view.
Then there were other issues such as
heatwaves and health problems related to
climate change. Heatwaves affect older
people and small children more than
others, and if you’re isolated, you’re at even
greater risk during a heatwave.
These are all areas that we’ve started to
work in, but we thought, “Let’s actually ask
women what they’re seeing and thinking.”
So we commissioned Professor Feldman
and Dr Radermacher to undertake in-
depth discussions with 127 women across
a culturally diverse range of Melbourne
women between the ages of 50 and 91,
with an average age of 70 years. Of those,
48 per cent lived alone. So that gives
you an idea of the range of older women
giving perspectives.
From this research, what did women
specifically find important? Were there
aspects you hadn’t thought about?
Yes. I think the research has really
emphasised that social connectedness
is a key issue – and not in the sense that
it’s just recreational: having things to do.
It’s actually about being connected to
I think some of the housing issues are
tricky and probably specific, because
women sometimes have less financial
capability if they’ve worked in lower
paid roles, with the gender pay gap.
Or they haven’t accumulated as much
superannuation because of all their other
caring roles. So they might come to older
age in not such a good financial situation.
From that point of view, there’s extra
pressure in terms of the cost of running a
house and paying rent or even a mortgage,
and the cost of everything’s gone up.
Being socially isolated adds to that.
Another issue was unpaid childcare –
some people were isolated because they
were doing so much of that.
The unexpected financial insecurity
that confronts women as they get older
causes much anxiety, so there was a lot of
discussion about poor mental health too.
Then there’s the additional issue of
discrimination in the workplace. If older
women want to add to their financial
wellbeing by doing part-time or full-time
work, there is still some discrimination in
terms of older women not being valued
as they should.
Australian women are very well
educated when compared internationally.
They’re this huge resource of people who
have so much experience in caring roles
and in the workplace – but they don’t
really have much of a voice anymore.
Looking towards the positives, did
women talk about the things they
enjoyed about getting older?
I think the positive aspect is that they
really do want to participate. They loved
the project, they loved being asked what
they thought, they really wanted to be
heard. They want to have meaningful
connections with their families, the
community and their workplaces.
They’re an untapped resource in some
ways. A lot of the things they talked about
weren’t that positive in terms of basic,
practical stuff like transport, dealing with
peak hour, getting to appointments, being
nervous about driving when it’s very busy,
public transport being limited in some
suburbs – all these sorts of things. But on
the other hand, they were keen to help
address them and be part of solutions.
Being a woman yourself, you might
have come to the project with some
expectations as to what it would yield.
Did anything surprise you?
Well, I’ve been working in this area
for a while, so I know there are a few
challenges. I was, however, a bit surprised
that older women felt they didn’t have
as much of a voice as they would like in
policy and planning.
I suppose I’ve always admired older
women and their experience and wisdom,
and there have been lots of good role
models in my life.
So, I find it very sad that older women
are discriminated against and perhaps
excluded in some areas.
What will you do with these findings?
We’re doing a lot of work already on
homelessness and affordable housing, so
we’ll be doubling down on that.
For example, we were the first
philanthropic funder of the redevelopment
of Ozanam House by VincentCare, which
is a crisis and longer-term accommodation
for people who are homeless.
The exciting thing about the project
was it doubled the number of units, but
also it now allows older women to be
there. Previously it was a men’s service.
Where older women can be included
in new community housing, affordable
housing developments or share housing,
that’s very important. We’ll be looking to
fund new solutions in this area.
We’re also doing work on energy
efficiency for low-income families and
individuals. That’s not only reducing
carbon emissions, but has cost savings
as well. So we’ll keep on working on that
pretty seriously.
We’ve started a project in Greenbank
and Dandenong, called Hotspots, which
is about preparing for heatwaves and
making sure that older people and other
vulnerable people are ready and matched
with support. So that can be expanded.
We also work to provide economic
opportunities for older women. We’re
asking what else we can we do to make
sure older women have a voice and
some of these issues are addressed. In
philanthropy, we can help demonstrate
solutions and then government or the
private sector can take them further and
scale them up. So we are in a good spot
to test new models. ■
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