Older women's mobility and transportation issues - restraints and regulations, lust and splendour

Independent out-of-home mobility is an important contributor to well-being in old age, and has direct and indirect effects on different aspects of everyday life. The mobility of older persons has also recently been targeted as one of the top priorities within the transportation sector. Well-informed policymaking requires more research evidence. In particular, knowledge about older women road users is scarce, yet the majority of the ageing population is female. Understanding older women's mobility and transportation issues is also essential in that gender and age have intersecting effects on the transportation system in terms of mobility. The purpose of the present dissertation is to examine older women's mobility options and obstacles from a cross-disciplinary perspective. The work comprises four empirical studies. The data for two of them came from a postal survey on driving cessation, and the participants were Finnish women aged 70 (in 1997), who had or had previously had a driver license. The data for the third study was gathered from a postal survey on mobility options, and the participants were Finnish persons aged 65+ (in 2001). The fourth study comprised ten unstructured interviews with Swedish women aged 69-87 (in 2002). The framework of the dissertation combines moderate realist and constructionist approaches. The work takes theoretical insights from both feminism and critical gerontology, and the data analysis incorporates statistical methods and narrative analysis. The main findings can be summarised as follows. First, older persons are heterogeneous in their mobility options and their resources, and demographics are strongly associated with their mobility. A considerable number of older persons experience reduced mobility, and many of them are women. The gender difference in independent mobility was found to be significant. Second, the private car seems to be crucially important for older people's mobility, and the poorer mobility of women is principally due to the lack of the option to drive. Third, in addition to the fact that more older men than women have ever had a driver license, another important reason for the gender difference in having the option to drive is that older women are often likely to stop driving. It was shown that a significant number of older women give up their license while still fit to drive: hence, for many women, driving cessation may imply voluntary but unnecessary resignation from an active and independent life. Fourth, their personal driving history is a significant factor in driving cessation in older women. Those who show more "male-like" driving patterns are likely to continue driving on the same terms as men. Hence, while strongly correlated with gender, the decision about driving cessation is related to personal driving history rather than gender per se. Fifth, what seems to create the gender difference in driving habits, and eventually driving cessation, are the underlying socio-cultural conventions of everyday life that marginalize (older) women as car drivers. Women's experiences in the traditionally male arena of driving are not fully embedded in our cultural conceptions and norms, and the marginalization of women drivers is further reproduced. The findings of the present work contribute to what is known about older women's mobility in two ways: first, by describing their mobility and travel patterns and habits, and second by describing and searching for possible reasons for these patterns. There are clear implications for both further research and policy discussion. This report may be found at http://ethesis.helsinki. fi/julkaisut/kay/psyko/vk/siren/olderwom.pdf