Enid Schatz, University of Missouri
“Old Men and Women ‘Doing Gender’: Carework, Aging, and Identity in Uganda”
When: Friday, February 21, 2014 – 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Where: Kirby 104
In Uganda, HIV has killed many in the middle generation, leaving older persons without caregivers and in the position of having to provide care for children left behind. This presentation will highlight the ways in which gender norms learned over the life course are enacted by older persons when they are asked to fill in gaps in family carework. Gender identity, built over a lifetime, affects whom older persons see themselves as, and creates boundaries around the roles that they believe they can and should play as they age. It provides an important lens into the ways in which “doing gender” occurs in different cultural settings and continues into old age.
Enid Schatz is an Associate Professor at the University of Missouri with a joint appointment in the Department of Health Sciences and the Department of Women’s & Gender Studies. Having researched issues related to gender, aging, health and carework in South Africa since 2002, Dr. Schatz has recently begun working with data on similar topics from Uganda. She received her PhD in sociology and demography from the University of Pennsylvania.