| Summary: | The overall aim of the five studies that make up this thesis is to elucidate constructions of being old from the perspectives of gender and ethnicity. One of the studies uses quantitative data and four use qualitative data. The sample in study I consisted of 125 participants from the Umeå 85+ study, aged 85 to 103 years old, who were able to use Likert scales in responding to questions. Studies II and III involved content analysis of interviews with old persons scoring on the extremes of the resilience scale. In study IV, interviews with nine Sami women were analysed using grounded theory. In study V, four interview situations were subjected to discourse analysis. Study I showed statistically significant correlations between the scales measuring resilience, sense of coherence, purpose in life and self-transcendence. These scales were supposed to measuring a common dimension, which is here interpreted as “inner strength”. There was a significant correlation between women’s “inner strength” and perceived mental health. The femininities found were associated with “being connected”, “being an actor”, “living in the shadow of others” and “being alienated”. The masculinities found were associated with “being in the male centre”, “striving to maintain the male facade” and “being related”. The femininity associated with “being an actor” and the masculinity associated with “being in the male centre” were pronounced in those participants assessed as having high resilience. Old Sami woman were found to be balancing within various discourses, including being a reindeer owner versus not owning reindeer, being Sami versus being Swedish, speaking in Sami versus speaking in Swedish, dreaming about the past versus looking to the future, being equal to men versus living in the shadow of the male herders, and changing for survival versus striving to retain uniqueness as a Sami. Study V revealed that shifts in power between the interviewer and the interviewed can be related to the discourses of age, gender, education, body, ...
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