The relationship between gender, aging and the State in determining the material, social and psychological experiences of older people raises profoundly important questions of theory, practice and politics which this book seeks to address.

Throughout, the voices of older people some optimistic, some despairing and lonely, some independent, some experiencing exchange relationships with caregivers and some accepting and some fighting dependency can be heard clearly.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Peter Leonard and Barbara Nichols (both of McGill): The Theory and Politics of Aging;
Chapter I: Jane Aronson (School of Social Work, McMaster University): Old Women and Care: Choice or Compulsion? Chapter II: Marilyn Bicher (Coordinator of the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences, Vanier College, Montr‚al): The Dependency Relationship Between Daughters and Mothers;
Chapter III: Rita Bonar (teaches gerontology at Vanier College, and aging & ethnicity at Univ. de Montr‚al): The Experience of Italian Women;
Chapter IV: Michael J. MacLean (Professor of Gerontology & Social Work, McMaster Univ.), Nancy Houlahan (Department of Social Work, Royal Victoria Hospital, Montr‚al), and, Frances Barskey (is a retired teacher, and a member of the Voice of Women in Montr‚al): Health Realities and Independence: The Voice of Elderly Women;
Chapter V: David Woodsworth (professor emeritus and former director of the McGill School of Social Work; member of the NDG Senior Citizens Council, Montr‚al): A View from the Other Side.

Barbara Nichols is associate professor of social work at McGill University, Montreal. Peter Leonard is professor of social work at McGill University and past president of the Canadian Association of Schools of Social Work. He is author of Personality and Ideology and General Editor of Critical Texts in Social Work and the Welfare State.