"Powerful and very important."
a"John Sibley Butler, University of Texas, Austin"

"A book that speaks to all of us, across lines of race and gender."
a"Melvin P. Sikes"

"This book will be informative and rewarding reading for students and professors alike."--"Gender and Society"

Whether in popular culture, academic research, or public consciousness, African American women are often defined by their presumed poverty or lack of education. In this unique antidote to public perception, Kathleen F. Slevin and C. Ray Wingrove focus on the experiences of an unusual group of pioneers: one of the first generations of African American women to work as white-collar professionals, retire in considerable comfort, and remain actively and fruitfully involved, as older women, in their respective communities.

Through the voices of these women, we come to understand the impact of social systems on individual lives and to appreciate how the legacies provided these women by their families, teachers, churches, and communities endowed them with the survival tools needed to succeed, despite the prejudice and "stumbling blocks" they encountered along the way. Slevin and Wingrove explore how the lessons of childhoodachoosing battles, avoiding hurtful Whites, striving for economic independence, and projecting self-confidence and racial prideatranslate to adulthood as they recount the ups and downs of being successful African American women.

Kathleen F. Slevin is Associate Professor of Sociology at the College of William and Mary. C. Ray Wingrove is Professor of Sociology at the University of Richmond.

This volume of original chapters is designed to bring attention to a neglected area of feminist scholarship - aging. After several decades of feminist studies we are now well informed of the complex ways that gender shapes the lives of women and men. Similarly, we know more about how gendered power relations interface with race and ethnicity, class and sexual orientation. Serious theorizing of old age and age relations to gender represents the next frontier of feminist scholarship. In this volume, leading national and international feminist scholars of aging take first steps in this direction, illuminating how age relations interact with other social inequalities, particularly gender. In doing so, the authors challenge and transform feminist scholarship and many taken for granted concepts in gender studies.

This volume of original chapters is designed to bring attention to a neglected area of feminist scholarship - aging. After several decades of feminist studies we are now well informed of the complex ways that gender shapes the lives of women and men. Similarly, we know more about how gendered power relations interface with race and ethnicity, class and sexual orientation. Serious theorizing of old age and age relations to gender represents the next frontier of feminist scholarship. In this volume, leading national and international feminist scholars of aging take first steps in this direction, illuminating how age relations interact with other social inequalities, particularly gender. In doing so, the authors challenge and transform feminist scholarship and many taken for granted concepts in gender studies.

The experience of men and women in later life varies enormously, not only along lines of gender but also due to ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and race. In this text on gender issues among the aging, Calasanti and Slevin explore these differences, their genesis, their meaning to men and women, and their treatment in the policy arena. The authors also take to task traditional research on aging and how it ignores these issues. The authors cover topics of work and retirement, body image, sexuality, health, family relationships, and informal care, among many others. The current research and nuanced theoretical approach presented in this brief book makes it the ideal text to correct the stereotypic and monolithic views of the elderly for courses in gender or aging.