Women's Survival in Old

Women’s Survival in Old Age: The Impact of Life Course Experience in the Development of Material and Non-Material Resources for Well-being in Old Age by Isobel Marjorie Alexandra Munro A thesis Submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Victoria University of Wellington 2017 2 ABSTRACT This thesis is about women’s acquisition and management of material and non-material resources for old age. It provides the historical context for a small group of women aged from seventy-two to ninety-two and examines the ways in which they acquired the resources enabling well-being in old age. The main resources explored are income and assets, housing, health, social connectivity and resilience. The data have been drawn from an oral history project which recorded the life histories of twenty-three community- dwelling New Zealand women of European ethnicity. The interviews were recorded between 2011 and 2013 and are archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington. Oral history provided in-depth interviews that produced rich data for analysis allowing the women’s voices to be heard. A life-course approach highlighted the gender-based cultural expectations and social structures of that informed the women’s life trajectories in a period of rapid social change covering the post-war economic expansion and the resurgence of the women’s movement. The study is interdisciplinary in nature; theories and concepts of ageing, including that of successful ageing, are reviewed from a critical gerontology perspective. It is constructed using a feminist lens and analysed according to grounded theory with flexible coding. The emergent themes relate to the importance of home ownership and the insecurity of renting, the desire to ‘age in place’, the belief in ‘making do’ and the need to have income in addition to New Zealand Superannuation, which covers only the basic needs for old women. The economic effects of divorce or separation which in some cases disadvantage women in old age are reviewed and the long-term values of education in obtaining a good income to facilitate home ownership and financial security. The role of resilience in the face of adversity is shown in the narrators’ ability to employ their agency in the resolution of difficult situations and to initiate and accept social support. 3 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has been made possible through the generous gifts of time energy and memory from the twenty-three women narrators of their life stories. Completion of the study is due to the patience, encouragement and support of my supervisors Dr Lesley Hall and Dr Alison Laurie who believed in me and kept me focussed over a long journey. I am grateful for the financial assistance of a Rosemary Seymour Award from the New Zealand Women’s Studies Association. I am indebted to the expertise of my daughter Dr Jane Allison who steered me through the intricacies of Endnote and other computer technicalities, to my friend Mary Mowbray for proof reading and to the support and assistance of Linda Evans and Lynette Shum at the Oral History section of the Alexander Turnbull Library. There are many folk who have helped me on my way: colleagues at the local Citizen’s Advice Bureau who covered for my absences, doctors who treated disease and did not put ill health solely down to old age, my gardening buddies who understood the long-term nature of projects, and the feminist support of friends from the Society for Research on Women in New Zealand and the Women’s Studies Association. My thanks must go above all to my parents and grandparents who believed in education for girls and, at some sacrifice to themselves, made it possible for me. I have benefited from New Zealand’s education system. Without a good education that qualified me for employment in a field where men and women were paid equally in the 1960’s I would have been unable to manage financially as a solo parent with five children or to save for retirement, which after all is what this thesis is all about. 5 6 CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 13 1.1 Background 15 1.2 The New Zealand context 17 1.3 Research question 20 1.4 The structure of the thesis 22 CHAPTER 2 APPROACHES TO AGEING AND ITS CONCEPTS 27 2.1 Demographics 32 2.2 Theoretical perspectives on ageing 36 2.2.1 Typologies of ageing theory 37 2.2.2 Activity, disengagement, continuity and exchange 38 2.2.3 Critical theorising about ageing 40 2.3 The social focus 43 2.4 Gender: Feminist input 45 2.5 The life course 48 2.6 Modernisation and ageism 51 2.6 Autonomy and adaptation 52 CHAPTER 3 SUCCESSFUL AGEING AND RESOURCES 55 3.1 The concept of successful ageing 56 3.2 Resilience 61 3.3 Housing, neighbourhood and transport 62 3.4 Income and assets 64 3.5 Health 68 3.6 Social connectedness 73 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH PROCESS 79 4.1 Influences 80 4.1.1 Feminism 80 4.1.2 Critical theorising in ageing and the life-course approach 83 4.1.3 Pragmatism 85 4.2 Method 86 4.2.1 Oral history 87 4.2.2 Ethics 90 4.2.3 Insider/ Outsider status 91 4.3 Data collection and processing 92 4.3.1 Selection of participants 92 4.3.2 Interview procedures 95 4.4 Thematic analysis using grounded theory 96 4.5 Validity 100 7 CHAPTER 5 THE NEW ZEALAND CONTEXT 103 5.1 Wars 105 5.2 A settler society 110 5.3 The old age pension 112 5.4 Employment paid and unpaid 117 5.5 Health provision 123 5.6 Education 126 5.7 Welfare provision 130 5.8 Housing 133 5.9 The women’s movement 135 CHAPTER 6 INTRODUCING THE NARRATORS 143 6.1 Group A: Narrators born in Europe 143 6.2 Group B: New Zealand born narrators 145 6.3 Marital Status 153 6.4 Children 154 6.5 Education and employment 155 CHAPTER 7 WOMEN’S ACCESS TO RESOURCES 159 7.1 Background 160 7.2 Education and employment 164 7.3 Income and assets 174 7.3.1 Early Economising 174 7.3.2 Finance in mid-life 176 7.3.3 Finance in retirement 177 7.4 Housing and transport 179 7.4.1 First accommodation 181 7.4.2 First Home ownership 183 7.4.3 Later homes 188 7.4.4 Options for retirement housing 192 CHAPTER 8 THE NARRATORS’ LIFE EXPERIENCES 207 8.1 War and depression 207 8.2 Childhood 214 8.3 Health 220 8.4 Marriage and children 222 8.4.1 Divorce and separation 225 8.5 Care-giving in old age 228 8.6 Living alone 239 8.7 The women’s movement 241 8.8 Support networks, social connectivity and spirituality 243 8.9 Resilience 251 8 CHAPTER 9 JOURNEY’S END AND NEW BEGINNINGS 259 9.1 The thesis findings 261 9.1.1 Housing 261 9.1.2 Financial security 264 9.1.3 Health 266 9.1.4 Social Adaptation 268 9.1.5 Information 270 9.2 Limitations 270 9.3 The significance of this research 271 9.3.1 Implications 273 9.3.2 Policy implications 273 9.4 Future research 275 9.4.1 Gender and Ethnic Analysis 275 9.4.2 Housing 275 9.4.3 Intergenerational analysis 275 9.5 Conclusion 276 REFERENCES 279 APPENDIX A: RECORDING AGREEMENT 317 APPENDIX B: CODE OF ETHICAL AND TECHNICAL PRACTICE 320 APPENDIX C: LETTERS TO PARTICIPANTS 322 APPENDIX D: GUIDELINES FOR INTERVIEWS 324 APPENDIX E: NARRATORS’ DATA 326 9 ABBREVIATIONS ACC Accident Compensation Corporation CAB Citizens Advice Bureau CFC Commission for Financial Capability CPI Cost Price Index DIY Do it Yourself GFC Global Financial Crisis GP General practitioner HLFS Household Labour Force Survey LCM Little Company of Mary MSD Ministry of Social Development MoH Ministry of Health NOHANZ National Oral History Association of New Zealand NZS New Zealand Superannuation SOC Selective Optimisation with compensation SROW Society for Research on New Zealand Women U3A University of the Third Age VUW Victoria University of Wellington WINZ Work And Income New Zealand WCC Wellington City Council WSA Women’s Studies Association WTC Wellington Teachers College DPB Domestic Purposes Benefit 10 GLOSSARY Gold Card Identification for free public transport in off-peak hours and discounts for pensioners Māori Indigenous Polynesian settlers in New Zealand Number The distinctly New Zealand phrase ‘Number 8 wire’ refers to the Eight Wire ingenuity to make or fix something from a limited range of materials available Pākehā Non-Maori usually of British ethnic origin or background Tāngata Human being, a person Whenua The people of the land, hosts as opposed to visitors 11 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Ageing presents one of the greatest social challenges of our time. Indeed the predicted change in the world's population i.e. the proportion of young and old has been described as paralleling ‘the magnitude of the industrial revolution’. (Global action on ageing, 2011) This magnitude challenges societies. It is predicted that future cohorts of adult and mid- life workers will be burdened unjustly with the support of both young and old. Technology may not solve problems requiring a redistribution of intergenerational ethical responsibilities. There will be a need to rethink the nature of paid work and care in terms of gender equality. “Women face greater problems in old age than men…an ageing society is primarily a female society” (Hooyman, 1999, p.

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