Rural Ageing Observatory Working Paper 4- Gender and rural ageing in Ireland: profile and key issues

This paper is the fourth in a series of briefings that profiles various aspects of ageing in rural Ireland. It draws on newly-available data to provide a gender profile of older Irish people in rural areas and discusses some of the important issues associated with gender and rural ageing, including living arrangements, income, employment, farming, transport and   informal care. It outlines a number of the challenges associated with ageing in rural Ireland for men and women and also describes some of their contributions to their communities, including volunteering and employment. It highlights the fact that, although older men and women face many similar challenges and rewards, the experience of ageing in rural Ireland has important variations by gender, due to their often different life-course trajectories.