Reconstrucción de soportes sociales en mujeres urbanos populares post viudez: Una mirada a los cuidados

Abstract

The growing percentage of women entering old age, along with the gender issues of aging, put the widowhood of old women as the time where it is possible to notice how social support becomes fragile. We conducted a qualitative study in old age widows from popular urban areas of Santiago de Chile, aiming to identify and describe the existence of gender mediated issues in their socialization, which may have influenced the way in which they reconstructed their social support relationships. The main findings are related to the impact of the type of partner they had, in terms of gender expectations, of the meaning of claims in the face of losses associated with widowhood and the way in which these claims have an impact on the reconstruction of social support. These results allow us to hold that the social construction of gender and the socialization shape the different widowhoods expressed by women. The contribution of this study is as an approach from the perspective of social support and gender-related issues, in the understanding of women widowhood in old age and its connection with the study of caregiving.