Statistically, women live longer than men in most countries. But living longer brings with it new burdens. As industrialized societies continue to age, more and more women will spend their final years alone and with less money.
 | Maria de Jesus gets a kiss from her granddaughter on her 113th birthday in the Portuguese village of Corujo. She was the oldest woman in Europe in September 2006, when this photo was taken (Photo: Reuters) |
"I never thought that I will be the world's oldest person one day," Edna Parker told a newspaper reporter on her 114th birthday. A native of the U.S. state of Indiana, Parker reached this milestone after Yone Miyagawa of Japan passed away this summer - also at the age of 114.
According to the Gerontology Research Group, Parker is one of the world's 78 confirmed living supercentenarians - a term for people 110 years old or older. Surprisingly, 71 of them are women and only 7 are men. Today, women in at least 35 countries can expect to live 80 years or more, while Iceland is the only country where men can statistically expect to live that long. So why do women live longer?
 | Elderly women exercise during a health promotion event to mark Japan's "Respect for the Aged Day" in Tokyo (Photo: Reuters) |
Elmar Brähler, medical psychologist at the University of Leipzig, says that in developed countries, lifestyle and social status influence life expectancy more than biological factors.
"On average, men drink more alcohol than women, they smoke more, they have a riskier lifestyle, and they commit suicide three times as often as women do," says Brähler. "Women, on the contrary, additionally have a more balanced diet and have less deadly traffic accidents."
The greatest gap between women and men occurs in Russia, a country known for heavy drinking and high suicide rates. Russian women live on average 11 to 14 years longer than their male compatriots, whose life expectancy now stands at around 57 years. This gap in life expectancy is mainly due to alcohol, crime, suicide, and bad prison conditions, says Brähler.
Women – not better, just healthier
When living conditions and attitudes are correspondent, the age gap disappears. A study in a monastery in Germany revealed that there was almost no difference in life expectancy between monks and nuns because both groups similarly avoid excessive lifestyles.
But since few in modern society live like monks and nuns, a gender gap in life expectancy continues to exist almost everywhere. The transition from employment to retirement, health to impairment, and marriage to widowhood thus has very different consequences for women and men. Therefore, the challenges of aging societies, already an area of increasing policy concern due to rising costs for health care and pensions, will have to be approached from a gender perspective.
"The main consequence of women outliving men is that while men are generally cared for in their last illness by a wife or partner, women are usually widowed and if they need care it is provided by adult children or in a residential setting," says Jay Ginn, professor at the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender at Surrey University.
Women often receive less from pension funds due to maternity breaks and motherhood. So, not only do women have to cope with aging and increasing disability on their own, they also have less money than men after retiring.
The goal: a healthy life
The World Health Institute has introduced the term "healthy life expectancy," which describes the number of years one can expect to live in relatively good health. This does not mean catching a common cold, but rather focuses on life expectancy without chronic or serious health problems.
Japan has the world's highest life expectancy for both women (86 years) and men (78 years), as well as the highest healthy life expectancy. Experts say diet and excellent medical care are among the reasons for healthy aging in Japan.
While enough exercise and a good diet may increase healthy life expectancy for men as well as women, there is more to healthy aging than just eating enough vegetables and taking a half-hour stroll after lunch. Loosening up a little and relaxing could help, as well. As the 114-year-old Edna Parker put it, "people would live longer, if they weren't so anxious."
editor: Miki Yokoyama
publishing date: October 11, 2007
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Readers' Comments:
Completely ignoring biology, though, is not good. Note that even in the womb, female fetuses outsurvive male ones, and 90% of the smallest premature babies that survive are female. Biology plays a factor as women have more genes (XX) than men (Xy), where the 'y' chromosome is a lot smaller and has less 'backup' genes should something go wrong.
Robert Young, Gerontology Research Group
October 30, 2007
