For Anti-Poverty Week, we are focussing on older women’s disadvantage, accumulated across a lifetime. An earlier post explored how older women are now the largest demographic reliant on the Newstart Allowance, which is pushing many into crisis. In today’s post, “Lorraine”[1] generously shares her story, in her own words. Lorraine is 70 years old, currently living in private rental accommodation. She receives a full age pension and commonwealth rent assistance while also working part-time. Her story contains many of the barriers and bumps that all women face – relationship breakdown, single parenting, the need to reskill, relocation for jobs, being called upon to help with caring for ageing parents or grandbabies, and that ever-present sexually-transmitted debt. Lorraine was interviewed for Per Capita’s (@PerCapita) recent report on innovative solutions for housing precarity for older women. We are thankful to her for allowing us to share her story here.

Starting out: Raised to conform to traditional gender roles

I’m your typical baby boomer! Born in 1947 and married at 20, two kids by 25, divorced by 38…

I don’t know if my name was on the house deed of my husband’s and my house. I don’t know how much money he earnt, because that was back in the era when it was, ‘oh, don’t you worry about that’.

Parenting, precarious employment, and the need to upskill

I’ve spent a lot of my time in either part-time or low paid work. I thought it was important to be at home when the children were little and when I tried to get back into the workforce, I found I had no skills. So I put myself through uni, got a Bachelor of Arts degree, then later a Grad Dip Ed. I started working and getting a little bit of superannuation - my husband’s superannuation, I didn’t get any of that!

I was in a pretty dire financial position though, so at the end of the 1990’s I went to Japan to teach. I was on a good salary there and managed to get my funds up. Then my daughter had a baby so I came back to Victoria and again had to be careful with finances.

Expectations and caring roles across the lifespan

In 2012 my mum became ill and I moved to western Australia to care for her until she died in 2016. I’ve moved around a lot in the last 20-25 years.

After mum died, I got a little settlement. I went to a sensible financial adviser – I was getting some bad advice before – and joined an industry superannuation fund, so I’ve got a little money here and there, but I will never own my own house.

I’m on a full pension with rent assistance, and very conscious of savings. I only need one thing to go disastrously wrong - I worry that I don’t have enough. Recently I’ve managed to find work again, teaching part time. But that, of course, reduces my pension payments.

Looking for housing stability

When I returned to Melbourne, circumstances saw me move 3 times in 3 years. I got the opportunity to share a house, but it was so difficult to share, so disappointing. I did go into a depression; but I’ve gotten myself out of that and feel good about myself now!

I was fortunate to find a rental property I can afford where my daughter and my grandchildren are. But I’ve gone from a four-bed house with a backyard to a one-bed flat with no balcony, because that’s all I can afford in this vicinity. But I can be useful here, much more than anywhere else.

Social connection is vital to health and wellbeing

Women lead full and productive lives, yet increasingly are struggling to make ends meet as they age. ‘Lorraine’ shares her experiences as well as her desire for social connection, meaning, and housing stability as she enters her 70th decade. Photo c… — Women lead full and productive lives, yet increasingly are struggling to make ends meet as they age. ‘Lorraine’ shares her experiences as well as her desire for social connection, meaning, and housing stability as she enters her 70th decade. Photo credit: Pixabay.

A lot of locals are wealthier than I, they’re owner-occupiers, and keep people at arm’s length a little bit. I’ve only been here a short while so I don’t have a support network. I am thinking, ‘who is my mob?’, ‘who are my people?’, ‘where am I going to get my support?’ I’m actively working on it.

I can go a whole day without speaking to another person and that isolation is something we really need to look at. I don’t want to go to a retirement village, they’re too structured, too walled; but if I could live in a communal housing of some sort, that’s what I would choose.

I’ve been in this flat for 12 months now. Just this morning my upstairs neighbour came and introduced herself and we went out for coffee. She’s older than I am - over 80 - so I hope she and I will form a neighbourhood watch of sorts, where we look out for each other.

I’ve done so many things in my life and I’ve gathered so many skills. Last week I did a community barbeque and a little boy said, ‘oh this is the best day of my life. I didn’t want to come and I’m so glad I did!’. Being able to relate to different nationalities, different age groups, that is one of my strengths. I can get people to step up!

I think the U3A network (University of the Third Age) is the most fantastic! I’m on the local committee, I’m learning Japanese, I do philosophy, I write. I’m a cyber-activist! I write to politicians and stand up for human and Indigenous rights. In the past I had imposter syndrome, I didn’t think I was worth anything. But in the last few years, I’ve thought, if I don’t do it now, when the heck am I going to!

I had read about co-housing in the UK and thought I would live in a place like that. The sense of community; the fact that you’re all in it together and you’re all in on the decisions - shared responsibility. You’d roster who’s going to do shopping for that person, who’s going to make sure she’s OK, that she got out of bed and had a shower that day.

My biggest horror for ageing is becoming isolated. This is a real thing for me - I just can’t believe how we’ve gotten here, it’s ridiculous the way we’re living. I need the community support, the social support… a bunch of people who want to do the same thing! Getting back to true community instead of this isolated way of living. It’s very very easy, when I’m living in a one-bedroom flat, to become isolated. Every now and then I have a little panic attack about what’s going to happen in the future.

The current policy response is failing older people

This is where governments make decisions but they don’t know who their end user is.

If I had a magic wand, I picture living in a beautiful, natural place, with people wandering around, each with our own place to go back to… a little village kind of a place. I can do little repairs, I’m creative, I’m a very good conversationalist and an excellent teacher. I like getting people to do stuff! Being involved in the decision-making would be absolutely vital. We’d have community and autonomy, but with some sort of agency as well – a meaningful social role.

Read the full Per Capita report Mutual Appreciation: A social innovation thinkpiece, conducted by Myfan Jordan and a team of peer researchers, to learn more about what older women want in housing stability.

This post is part of the Women's Policy Action Tank initiative to analyse government policy using a gendered lens. View our other policy analysis pieces here.

[1] Not her real name

Skilled, productive, resilient - what's going wrong for older women? Lorraine's story