Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T19:02:32.283Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘It's most of my life – going to the pub or the group’: the social networks of involuntarily childless older men

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2019

Robin A. Hadley Open the ORCID record for Robin A. Hadley [Opens in a new window]
Robin A. Hadley*
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher, Manchester, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The social networks of older people are a significant influence on their health and wellbeing. Adult children are an important element in their parent's network and provide the majority of informal care. The morphology of personal networks alters with age, employment, gender and relationships. Not having children automatically reduces both vertical familial structure and affects the wider formal and informal social links that children can bring. Childless men are missing from gerontological, reproduction, sociological and psychological research. These fields have all mainly focused on family and women. This paper reports on an auto/biographical qualitative study framed by biographical, feminist, gerontological and lifecourse approaches. Data were gathered from semi-structured biographical interviews with 14 self-defined involuntarily childless men aged between 49 and 82 years old. A latent thematic analysis highlighted the complex intersections between childlessness and individual agency, relationships and socio-cultural structures. The impact of major lifecourse events and non-events had significant implications for how childless people perform and view their social and self-identity. I argue that involuntary childlessness affects the social, emotional and relational aspects of men's lived experience across the lifecourse.

Keywords

autobiographychildlessnessfictive kingrandparenthierarchical mappingrelationshipspersonal communitieswidowhood
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 51 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albertini, M and Kohli, M (2017) Childlessness and intergenerational transfers in later life. In Kreyenfeld, M and Konietzka, D (eds), Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences. New York, NY: Springer, pp. 351–367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albertini, M and Mencarini, L (2014) Childlessness and support networks in later life: new pressures on familistic welfare states? Journal of Family Issues 35, 331–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, KR, Blieszner, R and Roberto, KA (2011) Perspectives on extended family and fictive kin in the later years: strategies and meanings of kin reinterpretation. Journal of Family Issues 32, 1156–1177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, RES and Wiles, JL (2013) How older people position their late-life childlessness: a qualitative study. Journal of Marriage and Family 75, 206–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amieva, H, Stoykova, R, Matharan, F, Helmer, C, Antonucci, TC and Dartigues, J-F (2010) What aspects of social network are protective for dementia? Not the quantity but the quality of social interactions is protective up to 15 years later. Psychosomatic Medicine 72, 905–911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antonucci, TC (1986) Social support networks: hierarchical mapping technique. Generations 10, 10–12.Google Scholar
Arber, S, Andersson, L and Hoff, A (2007) Changing approaches to gender and ageing: introduction. Current Sociology 55, 147–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arber, S, Davidson, K and Ginn, J (2003) Changing approaches to gender and later life. In Arber, S, Davidson, K and Ginn, J (eds), Gender and Ageing. Changing Roles and Relationships. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, pp. 1–14.Google Scholar
Attanasio, O, Banks, J, Blundell, R, Chote, R and Emmerson, C (2004) Pensions, Pensioners and Pensions Policy: Financial Security in UK Retirement Savings? (ESRC Seminar Series – Mapping the Public Policy Landscape). Swindon, UK: Economic and Social Research Council.Google Scholar
Baars, J and Phillipson, C (2013) Connecting meaning with social structure: theoretical foundations. In Baars, J, Dohmen, J, Grenier, A and Phillipson, C (eds), Ageing, Meaning and Social Structure: Connecting Critical and Humanistic Gerontology. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, pp. 11–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Basten, S (2009) Voluntary childlessness and being childfree. University of Oxford, The Future of Human Reproduction Working Paper 1–23.Google Scholar
Becker, G (1999) Disrupted Lives. How People Create Meaning in a Chaotic World. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Bengtson, VL (2001) Beyond the nuclear family: the increasing importance of multigenerational bonds. Journal of Marriage and Family 63, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, KM (2007) No sissy stuff: towards a theory of masculinity and emotional expression in older widowed men. Journal of Aging Studies 21, 347–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennett, KM, Arnott, L and Soulsby, LK (2013) You're not getting married for the moon and the stars: the uncertainties of older British widowers about the idea of new romantic relationships. Journal of Aging Studies 27, 499–506.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berrington, A (2004) Perpetual postponers? Women's, men's and couple's fertility intentions and subsequent fertility behaviour. Population Trends 117, 9–19.Google Scholar
Berrington, A (2015) Childlessness in the UK. Working Paper 69. Centre for Population Change, University of Southampton, Working Paper Series.Google Scholar
Beth Johnson Foundation/Ageing Without Children (BJF/AWoC) (2016) Our Voices. London: AWoC. Available at https://ageingwithoutchildren.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/our-voices-final-report1.pdf.Google Scholar
Birch, M (1998) Re/constructing research narratives: self and sociological identity in alternative settings. In Ribbens, J and Edwards, R (eds), Feminist Dilemmas in Qualitative Research: Public Knowledge and Private Lives. London: Sage, pp. 171–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackstone, A and Stewart, MD (2012) Choosing to be childfree: research on the decision not to parent. Sociology Compass 6, 718–727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaikie, N (2010) Designing Social Research. The Logic of Anticipation. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Boivin, J, Bunting, L, Collins, J and Nygren, K (2007) International estimates of infertility prevalence and treatment-seeking: potential need and demand for infertility medical care. Human Reproduction 22, 1506–1512.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Braun, V and Clarke, V (2006) Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, V, Clarke, V and Terry, G (2013) Thematic analysis. In Rohleder, P and Lyons, A (eds), Qualitative Research in Clinical and Health Psychology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 95–113.Google Scholar
Byetheway, B (1997) Talking about age: the theoretical basis of social gerontology. In Jamieson, A, Harper, S and Victor, C (eds), Critical Approaches to Ageing and Later Life. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, pp. 7–15.Google Scholar
Calasanti, TM (2004) Feminist gerontology and old men. Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 59B, S305–S314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calasanti, TM and King, N (2005) Firming the floppy penis. Men and Masculinities 8, 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calasanti, TM and Slevin, KF (2001) Introduction. In Calasanti, TM and Slevin, K (eds), Gender, Social Inequalities and Aging. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, pp. 3–12.Google Scholar
Carers UK (2015) Facts About Carers (Policy briefing). London: Carers UK. Available at http://www.carersuk.org/images/Facts_about_Carers_2015.pdf.Google Scholar
Chambers, P (2005) Older Widows and the Life Course: Multiple Narratives of Hidden Lives. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing.Google Scholar
Chambers, P, Allan, G, Phillipson, C and Ray, M (2009) Family Practices in Later Life. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.Google Scholar
Connell, RW (1995) Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Crystal, S, Akincigil, A, Sambamoorthi, U, Wenger, N, Fleishman, JA, Zingmond, DS, Hays, RD, Bozzette, SA and Shapiro, MF (2003) The diverse older HIV-positive population: a national profile of economic circumstances, social support, and quality of life. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 33, S76–S83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Culley, L, Hudson, N and Lohan, M (2013) Where are all the men? The marginalization of men in social scientific research on infertility. Reproductive Biomedicine Online 27, 225–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davidson, K (1998) Gender, Age and Widowhood: How Older Widows and Widowers Differently Realign Their Lives (PhD thesis). Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.Google Scholar
Davidson, K (2001) Late-life widowhood, selfishness, and new partnership choices: a gendered perspective. Ageing & Society 21, 297–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, K (2004) Why can't a man be more like a woman? Marital status and social networking of older men. Journal of Men's Studies 13, 25–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, K (2006) Flying solo in old age: widowed and divorced men and women in later life. In Vincent, JA, Phillipson, CR and Downs, M (eds), The Futures of Old Age. London: Sage, pp. 172–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Jong Gierveld, J (2003) Social networks and social well-being of older men and women living alone. In Arber, S, Davidson, K and Ginn, K (eds), Gender and Ageing. Changing Roles and Relationships. Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press, pp. 95–110.Google Scholar
Deindl, C and Brandt, M (2017) Support networks of childless older people: informal and formal support in Europe. Ageing & Society 37, 1543–1567.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunnell, K (2008) Ageing and mortality in the UK: National Statistician's annual article on the population. Population Trends 134, 6–23.Google Scholar
Dykstra, PA and Fokkema, T (2010) Relationships between parents and their adult children: a West European typology of late-life families. Ageing & Society 31, 545–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dykstra, PA and Hagestad, GO (2007) Roads less taken: developing a nuanced view of older adults without children. Journal of Family Issues 28, 1275–1310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dykstra, PA and Keizer, R (2009) The wellbeing of childless men and fathers in mid-life. Ageing & Society 29, 1227–1242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earle, S and Letherby, G (2003) Introducing gender, identity and reproduction. In Earle, S and Letherby, G (eds), Gender, Identity and Reproduction: Social Perspectives. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etherington, K (2004) Becoming a Reflexive Researcher. London: Jessica Kingsley.Google Scholar
Exley, C and Letherby, G (2001) Managing a disrupted lifecourse: issues of identity and emotion work. Health 5, 112–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finch, J (2007) Displaying families. Sociology 41, 65–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, JRW and Hammarberg, K (2012) Psychological and social aspects of infertility in men: an overview of the evidence and implications for psychologically informed clinical care and future research. Asian Journal of Andrology 14, 121–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, JRW and Hammarberg, K (2017) Psychological aspects of infertility among men. In Simoni, M and Huhtaniemi, I (eds), Endocrinology of the Testis and Male Reproduction. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, pp. 1287–1317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, C (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gillespie, R (2000) When no means no: disbelief, disregard and deviance as discourses of voluntary childlessness. Women's Studies International Forum 23, 223–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, JR (2009) How populations age. In Uhlenberg, P (ed.), International Handbook of Population Aging. Houten, The Netherlands: Springer, pp. 7–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, ME and Biddlecom, AE (2000) Absent and problematic men: demographic accounts of male reproductive roles. Population and Development Review 26, 81–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greil, AL, Slauson-Blevins, K and McQuillan, J (2010) The experience of infertility: a review of recent literature. Sociology of Health & Illness 32, 140–162.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guasp, A (2011) Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People in Later Life. London: Stonewall. Available at https://www.stonewall.org.uk/sites/default/files/LGB_people_in_Later_Life__2011_.pdf.Google Scholar
Hadley, RA (2014) The impotence of earnestness and the importance of being earnest: recruiting older men for interview. In Tarrant, A and Watts, JH (eds), Studies of Ageing Masculinities: Still in Their Infancy? London: The Centre for Policy on Ageing, pp. 68–83.Google Scholar
Hadley, RA (2015) Life Without Fatherhood: A Qualitative Study of Older Involuntarily Childless Men (PhD thesis). Centre for Social Gerontology, Keele University, Keele, UK.Google Scholar
Hadley, RA (2018 a) Ageing without children, gender and social justice. In Westwood, S (ed.), Ageing, Diversity and Equality: Social Justice Perspectives. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, pp. 66–81.Google Scholar
Hadley, RA (2018 b) I'm missing out and I think I have something to give: experiences of older involuntarily childless men. Working with Older People 22, 83–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadley, RA and Hanley, TS (2011) Involuntarily childless men and the desire for fatherhood. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology 29, 56–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammersley, M and Atkinson, P (2007) Ethography. Principles in Practice. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heaphy, B (2007) Sexualities, gender and ageing. Current Sociology 55, 193–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hearn, J (1998) Theorizing men and men's theorizing: varieties of discursive practices in men's theorizing of men. Theory and Society 27, 781–816.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hearn, J (2000) Men, (pro-)feminism, organizing and organizations. Finnish Journal of Business Economics 3, 350–372.Google Scholar
Hearn, J (2004) From hegemonic masculinity to the hegemony of men. Feminist Theory 5, 49–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff, A (2015) Current and Future Challenges of Family Care in the UK: Future of an Ageing Population. Evidence Review: March 2015 (Foresight ‘Future of an Ageing Population Project’). London: UK Government Office for Science.Google Scholar
Holstein, MB and Minkler, M (2007) Critical gerontology: reflections for the 21st century. In Bernard, M and Scharf, T (eds), Critical Perspectives on Ageing Societies. Bristol, UK: The Polity Press, pp. 13–23.Google Scholar
Inhorn, MC (2012) The New Arab Man. Emergent Masculinities, Technologies, and Islam in the Middle East. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Inhorn, MC, Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, T, Goldberg, H and la Cour Mosegard, M (2009) The second sex in reproduction? Men, sexuality, and masculinity. In Inhorn, MC, Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, T, Goldberg, H and la Cour Mosegard, M (eds), Reconceiving the Second Sex: Men, Masculinity, and Reproduction. New York, NY: Bergham Books, pp. 1–17.Google Scholar
Jones-Wild, R (2012) Reimagining families of choice. In Hines, S and Taylor, Y (eds), Sexualities: Past Reflections, Future Directions. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 149–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, M (1994) Men, feminisim, and men's contradictory experiences of power. In Brod, H and Kaufman, M (eds), Theorizing Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 142–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimmel, M, Hearn, J and Connell, RW (2005) Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
King, A (2016) Older Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Adults: Identities, Intersections and Institutions. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, A and Cronin, A (2016) Bonds, bridges and ties: applying social capital theory to LGBT people's housing concerns later in life. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults 17, 16–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knodel, J and Ofstedal, MB (2003) Gender and aging in the developing world: where are the men? Population and Development Review 29, 677–698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krekula, C (2007) The intersection of age and gender: reworking gender theory and social gerontology. Current Sociology 55, 155–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lechner, L, Bolman, C and van Dalen, A (2007) Definite involuntary childlessness: associations between coping, social support and psychological distress. Human Reproduction 22, 288–294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, S (2003) Myths and reality in male infertility. In Haynes, J and Miller, J (eds), Inconceivable Conceptions: Psychological Aspects of Infertility and Reproductive Technology. Hove, UK: Brunner-Routledge, pp. 73–85.Google Scholar
Leontowitsch, M (2013) Interviewing older men online. In Pini, B and Pease, B (eds), Men, Masculinities and Methodology. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 223–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letherby, G (1999) Other than mother and mothers as others: the experience of motherhood and non-motherhood in relation to ‘infertility’ and ‘involuntary childlessness’. Women's Studies International Forum 22, 359–372.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letherby, G (2002) Childless and bereft? Stereotypes and realities in relation to ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ childlessness and womanhood. Sociological Inquiry 72, 7–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Letherby, G (2010) When treatment ends: the experience of women and couples. In Crawshaw, M and Balen, R (eds), Adopting After Infertility: Messages from Practice, Research, and Personal Experience. London: Jessica Kingsley, pp. 29–42.Google Scholar
Letherby, G (2012) ‘Infertility’ and ‘involuntary childlessness’: losses, ambivalences and resolutions. In Earle, S, Komaromy, C and Layne, L (eds), Understanding Reproductive Loss: Perspectives on Life, Death and Fertility. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, pp. 9–21.Google Scholar
Letherby, G (2014) Feminist auto/biography. In Evans, M and Hemmings, C (eds), The Sage Handbook of Feminist Theory. London: Sage, pp. 45–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liamputtong, P (2007) Researching the Vulnerable. A Guide to Sensitive Research Methods. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Lloyd, M (1996) Condemned to be meaningful: non-response in studies of men and infertility. Sociology of Health & Illness 18, 433–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lohan, M (2015) Advancing research on men and reproduction. International Journal of Men's Health 14, 214–232.Google Scholar
Marsiglio, W, Lohan, M and Culley, L (2013) Framing men's experience in the procreative realm. Journal of Family Issues 34, 1011–1036.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNeil, C and Hunter, J (2014) The Generation Strain. The Collective Solutions to Care in an Ageing Society. London: Institute for Public Policy Research.Google Scholar
Metlife Mature Market Institute (2010) Still Out, Still Aging: The MetLife Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Baby Boomers. New York, NY: Metlife Mature Market Institute. Available at www.webcitation.org/6pEEb7F97.Google Scholar
Miall, CE (1986) The stigma of involuntary childlessness. Social Problems 33, 268–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moller, M (2007) Exploiting patterns: a critique of hegemonic masculinity. Journal of Gender Studies 16, 263–276.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monach, JH (1993) Childless, No Choice: The Experience of Involuntary Childlessness. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Morgan, DHJ (1981) Men, masculinity and sociological enquiry. In Roberts, H (ed.), Doing Feminist Research. London: Routledge, pp. 83–113.Google Scholar
Morgan, DHJ (1998) Sociological imaginings and imagining sociology: bodies, auto/biographies and other mysteries. Sociology 32, 647–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, DHJ (2011) Locating ‘family practices’. Sociological Research Online 16, 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morison, T (2013) Heterosexual men and parenthood decision making in South Africa: attending to the invisible norm. Journal of Family Issues 34, 1125–1144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, M (2009) Where have all the children gone? Women's reports of more childlessness at older ages than when they were younger in a large-scale continuous household survey in Britain. Population Studies: A Journal of Demography 63, 115–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myck, M (2015) Living longer, working longer: the need for a comprehensive approach to labour market reform in response to demographic changes. European Journal of Ageing 12, 3–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mykhalovskiy, E (1996) Reconsidering table talk: critical thoughts on the relationship between sociology, autobiography and self-indulgence. Qualitative Sociology 19, 131–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Health Service (2017) Infertility. London: National Health Service. Available at https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/infertility/.Google Scholar
Neugarten, BL (1969) Continuities and discontinuities of psychological issues into adult life. Human Development 12, 81–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, K (2002) Stigma management among the voluntarily childless. Sociological Perspectives 45, 21–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parr, N (2007) Which Men Remain Childless: The Effects of Early Lifecourse, Family Formation, Working Life and Attitudinal Variables. Melbourne Institute. Available at http://melbourneinstitute.com/downloads/hilda/conf-papers/Parr_Childless_Men.pdf.Google Scholar
Patton, MQ (2002) Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Pease, B (2000) Recreating Men. Postmodern Masculinity Politics. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Pesando, LM (2018) Childlessness and upward intergenerational support: cross-national evidence from 11 European countries. Ageing & Society 39, 1219–1254.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petrou, S (2018) I Only Wanted to Be a Dad: A Man's Journey on the Road to Fatherhood. Moira, Leicesterhire, UK: VASPX Publishing.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C (2004) Social networks and social support in later life. In Phillipson, C, Allan, G and Morgan, DHJ (eds), Social Networks and Social Exclusion: Sociological and Policy Perspective. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, pp. 35–49.Google Scholar
Phillipson, C (2013) Ageing, Key Concepts. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Piatczanyn, SA, Bennett, KM and Soulsby, LK (2015) We were in a partnership that wasn't recognized by anyone else: examining the effects of male gay partner bereavement, masculinity, and identity. Men and Masculinities 19, 167–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, L (2015) A growing care gap? The supply of unpaid care for older people by their adult children in England to 2032. Ageing & Society 35, 96–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickard, L, Wittenberg, R, King, D, Malley, J and Comas-Herrera, A (2009) Informal Care for Older People by Their Adult Children: Projections of Supply and Demand to 2041 in England. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar
Roberts, E, Metcalfe, A, Jack, M and Tough, SC (2011) Factors that influence the childbearing intentions of Canadian men. Human Reproduction 6, 1202–1208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, P (2017) Gay Men's Working Lives, Retirement and Old Age. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenfeld, D (2003) The Changing of the Guard: Lesbian and Gay Elders, Identity, and Social Change. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Roser, M (2017) Fertility Rate. Our World in Data. Available at https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate.Google Scholar
Russell, C (2007) What do older women and men want? Current Sociology 55, 173–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russo, NF (1976) The motherhood mandate. Journal of Social Issues 32, 143–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandberg, LJ and Marshall, BA (2017) Queering aging futures. Societies 7, 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sargent, P (2001) Real Men or Real Teachers? Contradictions in the Lives of Men Elementary School Teachers. Harriman, TN: Men's Studies Press.Google Scholar
Scrutton, S (1996) Ageism: the foundation of age discrimination. In Quadagno, J and Street, D (eds), Aging for the Twenty-first Century. New York, NY: St Martin's Press, pp. 141–154.Google Scholar
Simpson, P (2015) Middle-aged Gay Men, Ageing and Ageism: Over the Rainbow? Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, R (2009) Delayed childbearing and childlessness. In Stillwell, J, Coast, E and Kneale, D (eds), Fertility, Living Arrangements, Care and Mobility. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 23–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, CD (1998) Men don't do this sort of thing: a case study of the social isolation of house husbands. Men and Masculinities 1, 138–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sobotka, T (2017) Childlessness in Europe: reconstructing long-term trends among women born in 1900–1972. In Kreyenfeld, M and Koneitzka, D (eds), Childlessness in Europe: Contexts, Causes, and Consequences. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, pp. 17–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, L and Pahl, RE (2006) Rethinking Friendship: Hidden Solidarities Today. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, L (1993) On auto/biography in sociology. Sociology 27, 41–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, J, Browning, C and Sims, J (2014) Civic socialising: a revealing new theory about older people's social relationships. Ageing & Society 35, 750–764.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suen, YT (2010) Do older women or older men report worse health? Questioning the ‘sicker’ older women assumption through a period and cohort analysis. Social Theory & Health 9, 71–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanturri, ML, Mills, M, Rotkirch, A, Sobotka, T, Takács, J, Miettinene, A, Faludi, C, Kantsa, V and Nasiri, D (2015) State-of-the-art Report: Childlessness in Europe (Families and Societies Project, Working Series No. 32). Brussels: European Union.Google Scholar
Tarrant, A (2012) Grandfathering: the construction of new identities and masculinities. In Arber, S and Timonen, V (eds), Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. Bristol, UK: The Polity Press, pp. 181–201.Google Scholar
Thompson, EH (1994) Older men as invisible men in contemporary society. In Thompson, EH (ed.), Older Men's Lives. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 1–21.Google Scholar
Thompson, EH (2007) Older men as invisible men in contemporary society. In Arrighi, B (ed.), Understanding Inequality. The Intersection of Race/Ethnicity, Class, and Gender. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 289–295.Google Scholar
Thompson, EH (2008) Gender matters: aging men's health. Generations 32, 5–8.Google Scholar
Thompson, E and Whearty, P (2004) Older men's social participation: the importance of masculinity ideology. Journal of Men's Studies 13, 5–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Throsby, K and Gill, R (2004) It's different for men: masculinity and IVF. Men and Masculinities 6, 330–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Timonen, V and Arber, S (2012) A new look at grandparenting. In Arber, S and Timonen, V (eds), Contemporary Grandparenting. Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts. Bristol, UK: The Polity Press, pp. 1–24.Google Scholar
Tong, RP (2009) Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Townsend, NW (2002) The Package Deal: Marriage, Work and Fatherhood in Men's Lives. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Veevers, JE (1973) Voluntary childlessness: a neglected area of family study. The Family Coordinator 22, 199–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walz, T (2002) Crones, dirty old men, sexy seniors: representations of the sexuality of older persons. Journal of Aging and Identity 7, 99–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webb, RE and Daniluk, JC (1999) The end of the line: infertile men's experiences of being unable to produce a child. Men and Masculinities 2, 6–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wellman, B and Wortley, S (1990) Different strokes from different folks: community ties and social support. American Journal of Sociology 96, 558–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenger, GC (2009) Childlessness at the end of life: evidence from rural Wales. Ageing & Society 29, 1243–1259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenger, GC, Dykstra, PA, Melkas, T and Knipscheer, KCPM (2007) Social embeddedness and late-life parenthood community activity, close ties, and support networks. Journal of Family Issues 28, 1419–1456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenger, GC, Scott, A and Patterson, N (2000) How important is parenthood? Childlessness and support in old age in England. Ageing & Society 20, 161–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wengraf, T (2001) Qualitative Research Interviewing. Biographic Narratives and Semi-structured Methods. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Westwood, S (2016 a) Ageing, Gender and Sexuality: Equality in Later Life. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Westwood, S (2016 b) We see it as being heterosexualised, being put into a care home: gender, sexuality and housing/care preferences among older LGB individuals in the UK. Health and Social Care in the Community 24, 155–163.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Westwood, S (2018) Heterosexual ageing: interrogating the taken-for-granted norm. In Westwood, S (eds), Ageing, Diversity and Equality: Social Justice Perspectives. London: Routledge, pp. 147–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittenberg, R, Pickard, L, Malley, J, King, D, Comas-Herrera, A and Darton, R (2008) Future Demand for Social Care, 2005 to 2041: Projections of Demand for Social Care for Older People in England. London: Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science.Google Scholar
Wolff, K (1950) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Wong, JS and Waite, LJ (2015) Marriage, social networks, and health at older ages. Journal of Population Ageing 8, 7–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed