From income to loneliness, how gender ‘profoundly’ shapes the experience of aging in Canada

While older women are living longer than men in Canada, many are ageing with greater financial insecurity, loneliness and exposure to ageism, according to a new report. (Kampus Production/Pexels)

While older women are living longer than men in Canada, many women report aging with greater financial insecurity, loneliness and exposure to ageism.

Those findings come from a new report by the National Institute on Ageing, which was based on a survey of more than 6,000 Canadians aged 50 and older.

“Gender profoundly shapes the experience of growing older,” states the new report, which was released in partnership with the International Longevity Centre for Canada.

“Older Canadian women, especially those with inadequate incomes and those who are racialized, face systemic barriers that demand targeted, cross-cutting and evidence-based policy responses.”

Longer lives, but poorer outcomes

The life expectancy at birth in Canada was 84 for women and 79.6 for men in 2023. As a result of their greater longevity, there are nearly 600,000 more women than men in Canada aged 50 and older.

“Women enjoy longer life expectancies on average in Canada, but those added years can come with distinct challenges,” Talia Bronstein, the National Institute on Ageing’s director of policy, told CTVNews.ca. “From financial inequalities to navigating the intersection of ageism and sexism, older women in Canada have unique experiences that need to be better understood.”

According to the report, systematic inequities have contributed to a gender income gap that persists as women age. Older women were more likely than older men to report having inadequate income (24 versus 19 per cent) and having less than $5,000 saved for retirement (26 versus 19 per cent). Older women were also more likely to report experiencing material deprivation (23 versus 16 per cent).

Bronstein, who co-authored the report, notes that income adequacy had the biggest impact on the experience of aging.

“Older women fared worse in almost every financial indicator in our survey compared to older men,” she explained. “This reflects the cumulative economic disadvantage women can face over their lifetime, such as gender pay gaps and career interruptions for caregiving that can reduce lifelong earnings and retirement income overall.”

Older women with inadequate incomes were even more likely to report social isolation (61 versus 54 per cent), poor health and poor mental health compared to others. Racialized older women meanwhile were less likely to report having a regular primary health-care provider (64 vs 71 per cent).

The report also found that older women were more likely to report experiencing loneliness (61 versus 54 per cent) and instances of ageism (33 versus 28 per cent).

“Income adequacy appears to impact almost all dimensions of health status and health care access,” the report states.

“Research has found that social isolation and loneliness can result in premature mortality, reduced health outcomes, and diminished quality of life.”

Tackling inequities with targeted policies

Based at Toronto Metropolitan University, the National Institute on Ageing is an academic think tank that focuses on aging in Canada.

With factors such as gender, income and race influencing aging outcomes, the institute’s new report calls for policies that target the root causes of inequities in aging.

“Understanding where and how inequities exist is essential to designing policies that improve outcomes for older women,” National Institute on Ageing executive director Alyssa Brierley said in a news release.

“Experiences of aging differ across communities and demographic groups. If we want better outcomes for older women, we need an intersectional approach to understand where inequities exist so we can address them.”

Bronstein describes aging as an “inherently gendered experience.”

“All Canadians should be able to age with dignity,” she added. “For older women, this means tackling income inequalities across the lifespan, closing gaps in access to home and community supports, addressing social isolation and loneliness, and providing better supports for caregivers.”

Parminder Raina is a health sciences professor and the scientific director of McMaster University’s Institute for Research on Aging. Raina, who was not involved with the report, says while the findings are not exactly new, they should help inform policies and programs that serve Canada’s aging population.

“We need lot more support in our communities, in our homes, in neighborhoods where we live, and that’s where these findings that this this group reported become important,” Raina told CTVNews.ca on Tuesday.

“I think it’s an important report that they have put together, even though nothing is new, but it’s a good reminder for our policymakers at the municipal, provincial, federal level that the demographic shift is an important issue and there are issues with our demographic shift that we have to address.”