After each interview, a survey was administered (see Appendix 4 for a summary of findings). This survey provided a useful reference point when interpreting what the women had said at interview. Survey items 10 (income), 20 (make and model of car) and 22 (frequency of telephone contact) have been left out because the answers were inconsistent and some information was missing. The information obtained from the survey is outlined below.
The 35 study group members were diverse in terms of age, country of origin, educational background, work background and family life. Their ages ranged from 53 to 87. The majority (19) were in their seventies, 8 were in their eighties, 5 were in their fifties and 4 were in their sixties.
Nearly half (15) were migrants, nine born in England, one in Scotland, one in New Zealand, two in Yugoslavia, one in the Ukraine, and one in Austria. The last four spoke no English when they arrived in Australia and two still had strong accents, evident in the interview transcripts.
All the migrant women had migrated to Australia in the two decades following the Second World War; all but one had raised families here. For 19 of the 35 women their main source of income was the age pension. Five more received Veteran‘s Affairs pensions, two received combined superannuation and age pension, three were on superannuation, one had both UK and Australian
pensions, one has a disability pension, two were on unemployment benefits; and for two of them, paid work was their main source of income.
As to level of education, two had post-graduate qualifications, three had
university degrees, three had diplomas, six had certificate-level qualifications, and 11 had completed high school, including two at matriculation level. Seven had completed some high school, four had completed primary school and one had not completed primary school.
Five said they were never lonely, ten said they were hardly ever lonely, 18 said they were lonely sometimes, one said she was lonely often and one that she was lonely
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most of the time. On the scale used, the item feeling lonely sometimes was taken to indicate that loneliness was not a problem (nor did they mention it as a problem); rather, occasional feelings of loneliness are part of the normal range of experience and provide the motivation to seek out company.
Five rated their health as excellent, nine as very good; seven as good; ten as fair and five as poor. One of the last group was over the age of 75. The rest were 65 and under. This finding was contrary to my expectation that older age would be dominated by issues arising from disability and poor health that would increase with age.
Of the nine who needed help to get around, only one described her health as poor
two described it as fair, one as good, four as very good, and one as excellent, . A high proportion (14) said they were very happy with where they were living, 11 said they were happy, eight satisfied; and three unhappy.
A high proportion (19) said they had rich social networks; 14 said they had some socialnetworks. Interviewees 29 and 33 had recently moved and said they had no social network: they did not appear socially isolated and did not report loneliness as a problem, suggesting rather that their moves may have disrupted former social networks.
Interviewee 29 (who said she had no social network) was a public housing tenant who had recently transferred to a more accessible property after breaking an ankle. She perceived her neighbours as troublesome. She was in regular contact with her children and grandchildren, although her daughters had stopped bringing her grandchildren to the house following an incident with a neighbour. Her son stayed with her several nights a week. She was a regular volunteer at an over-fifties centre.
Interviewee 33 (who said she had no social network) had migrated to Australia from England with her Australian husband. They had two children. They had divorced many years ago and sold their joint home. She had shared rental accommodation with another woman for some years; however, problems arose,
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prompting her move to Tasmania where one of her sons and his family lived. She had recently fallen, and then moved to an Abbeyfield House. She referred to several people in the house who she regarded as her friends; one she regarded as a confidante. She said she was very happy living there although she said she
sometimes felt lonely. She was not mobile and had not maintained the social network she left when she moved.
A high proportion (19) said they belonged to three or more community-based organisations; five belonged to two organisations; six belonged to one; and five to
none.
As to the main form of transport: 19 women owned a car. Six mostly travelled by
bus, six were mostly driven by others, three mainly used a taxi and one mainly
walked. Several women had never learned to drive and were accustomed to using public transport. Others had cars and licenses but were not driving for health reasons. Two had voluntarily surrendered their licences, and one interviewee, who was under 65, had given up driving for financial reasons.
The majority (28) were homeowners, two of whom still had mortgages. This reflects home ownership as the tenure arrangement most common amongst older women who live alone. Of the remaining seven, three had lifetime leases on retirement units, two lived in public housing units, one in a government subsidised cohousing community and one in a government-subsidised Abbeyfieldhouse32. One of the three
living in social housing had never owned a home.
The women lived in a range of housing types. The majority (25) were living in
freestanding houses on separate blocks that they fully owned, mostly former family homes. Two of these lived on farms and one on a small acreage. Two women lived in former public-housing properties they and their husbands had bought: one house was
conjoined, the other free-standing; they were on separate blocks. Of the remaining ten, nine lived in villa-type units, including three stratum title units, three in retirement
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villages and three in social housing. One woman lived in a bed-sitting room in an
Abbeyfield house.
All the study group members lived in suburban Hobart or rural areas in Southern Tasmania. Seven lived in small towns within an hour‘s drive of Hobart and five in more remote locations. Contrary to my expectations, none of those in rural areas reported being dissatisfied with where they were living. Seven reported feeling
very happy, four happy, and one satisfied.
Of the previously married women, 17 were widows and 11 divorced. One had lived for ten years in a de facto relationship. Two women had never divorced and described themselves as separated. One was still married; her husband lived in a nearby nursing home.
Consistent with the findings from population surveys that older people are less likely to move compared to younger households (ABS, 1999), the women as a group were not highly mobile. Seven had moved within the last five years, the shortest period of residence being one year. Most recent moves had been within the same area. Where women had moved from interstate, no moves were recent. One had lived in the one place for 62 years. The average length of stay was 23 years, the median 17 years.
For most of the group, caring for children (and husbands) had been their primary role during their adult lives. About half had at some point also worked in low- paid unskilled work; six had mainly done clerical work. Eight had done
professional work, including two childless women in caring professions, one a child health nurse, the other an occupational therapist.
In the following four chapters I report in detail on the findings from the interviews: with the study group (Chapters 4, 5 and 6) and with the workers (Chapter 7) and with. This is followed by a discussion in Chapter 8, where I compare and discuss the findings from both sets of interviews and link my findings to a wider evidence base.