Introduction

The Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG) is an established research centre within the Sociology Department, which builds on the research reputation of members of the Department in this area.

CRAG focuses specifically on the interconnections between gender and ageing. Ageing is an area of increasing policy concern, stimulated by recognition of the growth in the older population, the projected costs of pensions and health care, earlier ages of retirement from paid work, changing patterns of consumer behaviour in later life and the opportunities afforded by increased leisure.

Later life is a time of transition from paid employment to retirement, marriage to widowhood, health to functional impairment and independent living to residence in a care home. CRAG conducts research on how these transitions have different meanings and implications for older women and men, and on the ways in which policy should take into account these differences.

Men and women enter mid-life and later life with very different biographies, experiences, social roles and relationships. Research within CRAG examines how gender differences in the earlier life course, in terms of paid work, family roles and social relationships, influence the ability of women and men to live fulfilling and socially engaged lives, while coping with ageing and increasing disability. CRAG takes a holistic lifecourse approach, emphasising the need to examine the connections between different aspects of people's lives, in terms of the effects of income and material circumstances on health, nutrition, sleep and well-being. CRAG aims for a fuller understanding of these connections in men's and women's lives.