[Importance of social volunteering for elderly and aged women]

Volunteering is not an unproblematic perspective for elderly women. Practical experience as well as scientific research point to the ambiguity of this type of work. On one hand, the gender-typed division of labour is continued; access to social or political voluntary work reflects the unequality of chances. On the other hand, volunteering can open up approaches and perspectives to improve one's individual life situation, particularly through social integration, giving a meaning to life, and thus gaining better health and psychosocial status. Especially in biographical phases, which are marked by losses of life-guiding functions and contacts, volunteering may become important. But there are a lot of women, who does not have the material and social conditions to manage this work. Should volunteering be shaped to fit many elderly women, it needs to be listed on the agenda on ageing topic of the ageing and women's policy.