Is being a grandmother being old? cross-ethnic perspectives from New Zealand

This paper draws on a study of social aging among women in urban New Zealand for a comparative analysis of grandmother as a marker of being socially old. The paper features the views and perspectives of the women themselves and examines ethnic group identification as a source of variation. Data collected in a series of indepth interviews with women representing four ethnic groups indicate similar patterns regarding prevalence of transition to the role and recognition of grandmother as one of the roles treated by others as primary in definition of old, but differences regarding how the role is treated in self definitions. In the women's own definitions, being a grandmother is treated as one among a configuration of markers of old age and its significance rests on how the role connects with the other markers. Six other markers were implicated: a shorter future, social generativity, social status, seniority, social renewal, and social integration. Ethnic variation in how the grandmother role connects is evident in respect to all six and relatively strong in the case of social status, seniority, social renewal, and social integration. Indicated for further study is the influence of ethnic culture and also the interaction of ethnicity with other sources of variation such as age in years and marital status.