I. Demographics -Older women in Hong Kong

(a) Nearly everywhere, women outlive men. For the age group 60 to 64 years old, there are 113 males to every 100 females. At the age of 75 and over, there are just 68 males to every 100 females.

(b) Women often outlive their spouses. This means that they are more likely to be living alone in old age. Among 84,900 elderly living alone, there are 39,400 male as compared with 45,400 female. The median age for male living alone is 70 as compared with female 75.

(c) Older women: pensions and work

• Statistics suggest that fewer older women are a part of the labour force than older men and their income are in general lower than their male counterpart.
• This does not mean that older women work less than men, but simply that the work they do is less likely to be in the formal sector. Throughout their lives women are more likely to undertake informal and unpaid work, including homemaking, childcare etc.
• This means that older women are generally less likely to be eligible for pensions and that their work, while important and often demanding, may not be recognised by communities or in official statistics. All too often the contribution of older women is underestimated.

d) Education attainment

In the past, girls and women had less access to formal education than boys and men. Differences in literacy levels between older men and women still exist. With the implementation of compulsory education, access to education and education attainment for women improved significantly. A more fair and brighter outline for women.

III. Implications

(a) Older Women

• promote activities which promote healthy ageing
• provide training and education opportunity to further increase their skills and knowledge
• increase awareness of contribution of older women to our society and review pension scheme/retirement income protection measures to cover such group

(b) Service development

i) responding to the changing roles of families, there is a greater need to develop a longer term strategy on health care and welfare for the aged

ii) the Japanese experience:

• development of In-Home Services (Home help; short stay institutions, day service centres, in-home care support centers)
• promotion of the “Project to Develop Welfare Communities for Comfortable Living”
• conducting the “Campaign to Reduce the Number of Bedridden Aged People to Zero”
• Securing Needed Personnel to Support Personal care
• Improving Health education and other educational activities
• Establishment of longevity social welfare fund

(c) Trends

• Education attainment of younger women is catching up. In 30 to 40 years time, the proportion of female and male receiving tertiary level of education would be similar. In fact, the number of female aged around 20s with university degree surpass their male counterpart.
• Labour participation rate of older women will grow as the cohort managed to have a higher education attainment.
• However, there are other factors that would affect the speculation; such as the growing number of new arrivals.

December 16, 2000

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