Gender Roles and Relations in the Later Age: Perceptions and Practices of Older Couples in Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Abstract

This article reveals the gendered impacts of ageing by examining the lived experience of older couples in Dhaka city. Based on an analysis of data collected through in-depth interviews, the findings reveal that the value of aged parents remains significant in the families of urban working couples. However, with advancing age and the breaking down of the traditional family system, older couples experience substantial changes in their gender roles and power status within the domestic sphere. Losing family breadwinner roles, lonely retired men suffer more from the feeling of powerlessness, whereas their wives keep on caregiving responsibilities. The altered life circumstances boost a sense of equality in some men, making them more caring and empathetic towards their wives. On the contrary, guided by traditional norms and values, several older men remain dominant and exercise control over their spouses as they did throughout their married life.