Summary Europe has the highest proportion of older women in the world. By 2010 one in four women will be over 60. As life expectancy rises, European mid-life and older women will find themselves increasingly on the frontline of a looming financial and social crisis if action is not taken now. Women are living longer, but those extra years are often marked by chronic illness, disability and difficulties in functioning independently. Dependence has physical economic, psychological and social dimensions that not only tax medical and community services but also have a powerful negative impact on the quality of women's lives.
Many women are also unpaid carers, responsible for spouses and ageing parents.
When older women are impaired, their whole family suffers. From a financial perspective, women's earnings and savings tend to be lower than men's, and they are less likely to benefit from a full pension, shifting more of the burden of care to the State. At the same time, Europe's wage and salary earners, who must bear the mounting costs of health care and social services, are a shrinking proportion of the population. Disease and disability are not inevitable accompaniments to growing old. The challenge facing the European Union's to help more Member States to expand opportunities for healthy ageing, particularly by detecting disease earlier when it is more amenable to treatment.