The Gendered Impact of Early Partnership Trajectories on Life Satisfaction among the Elderly: A Contribution to a Better Understanding of Social Inequality in an Ageing Population

Abstract

Recent research results emphasize that women are less satisfied with their lives than men around the globe throughout their lives, but specifically at higher ages. Life course events furthermore more likely affect life satisfaction of women than men; with respect to partnership-related events, this however only applies when looking at recurrent events, highlighting the importance of analysing long-term effects in this area of research. Given the interrelation between events within life courses, it is crucial to take the context into account – a perspective which is missing in this area of research. Based on different strands of theory and considering prior evidence, we therefore analysed long-term effects of partnerships based on life course trajectories. We found that effects increase with age among women, while they decrease with age among men, suggesting that men can compensate for negative experiences from partnerships with resources from other spheres of life over time, while the dependency on secondary resources from earlier partnership experiences increases with age among women. We conclude that segregated gender roles create a high risk of low quality of life among subgroups of women at more advanced ages.

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