Invisible women: what can we learn about ageing from the voices of women ageing solo?

Policy attention to ‘successful’ ageing has yet to take account of the impact of the rise in non-traditional family relationships. The focus of this presentation is on Solo women - women who are ‘not-partnered’, without children and who are aged 50 years and over. Little is known about the life trajectories of Solo women as they move into later life and there is a paucity of research seeking to understand their experiences of ageing, support networks, social connectedness and personal relationships. I will be drawing on selected findings from a study which explored the dynamics and issues impacting Solo women in later life using a range of methods. These included a literature review; demographic analysis, an online survey and from in-depth narrative interview data from 31 women in England and Ireland. These findings captured a rich picture of Solo women’s own subjective perspectives about the links between their relationship status and wellbeing in later life.