MARGINALIZOVAN DRUŠTVENI POLOŽAJ STARIJIH ŽENA U SRBIJI
Marginalized social position of older women in Serbia

Summary/Abstract: According to the Global Aging Index for 2014, Serbia is among 96 countries in which live 90% of the world's population is older than 60 years, at 78th place in the quality of life of the older. According to the Serbian Red Cross research, in 2015, 19.8% of the older experienced some form of abuse and violence in the third age, and abuse experience was 11% (136 thousand older people). Numerous research point to the fact that older people, in addition to persons with disabilities, are among the most discriminated groups in Serbia. Poverty and neglect of older people within the family are the most serious problems that third-aged persons in the Republic of Serbia are facing. The most frequent source of discrimination for the older lies in the belief that they are only burden for society, mostly meant as unworthy and unnecessary, since they do not in any way contribute to the community. As a result of all forms of discrimination, permanent marginalization occurs, which is an additional circumstance that diminishes or disables them in use their basic human rights. The article emphasizes that the category of older women is particularly exposed to age discrimination, with intersection with other grounds of discrimination which is more frequent in this category than in younger age groups. Almost twice as many older women (13%) than men (7%) are poor. Apart from marginalization, discrimination opens the door to violence, one of the elements that essentially contributes to the increase of insecurity. It is disturbing that the older people are often placed in older people homes without their consent (many of such premises do not meet, among other things, the basic prescribed working conditions). This situation of gender and age intersection is a situation of an even more intense presence of personal security risk, e.g. a third of women killed in Serbia in recent years are over sixty. The paper also analyzes the discriminative situation of older women serving prison sentences and femicide of older women.

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