Intersectionality and the Mental Health of Elderly Chinese Women Living in the UK

Abstract

In an age of globalisation and increased migration, intersectionality can help us to appreciate the complexity of various forms of structural inequality and the impact of divergent forms of oppression on a person over their lifetime. Focusing on some of the Chinese women who migrated to Britain in the 1950s and 1960s, we use the concept of intersectionality to understand how coalescing forms of structural inequality have affected the lives of many elderly Chinese immigrant women, and how these inequalities have put them at risk of poorer mental health. We acknowledge that many first‐generation Chinese immigrant women have had very different experiences from those of second‐ and third‐generation Chinese women and that each woman's life story is unique. None of the women is simply a victim of inequalities; all are active agents in their own lives, and many women will have found ways to negotiate their lives under pressure and build personal resilience. However, research suggests that many elderly Chinese women living in the UK have spent much of their lives in the borderlands of inequality and, as a result, are often unable to live the lives that they deserve in their old age.