Age(ing) and Gender

The demographic shift towards an ageing society, the process of growing older, and old age itself have many facets – from menopause to poverty in old age, from anti-ageing creams to loneliness, from walking aids to senior experts, from ‘undignified old ladies’ to ‘vigorous silverbacks’, and from ‘late-life freedom’ to dependency. The ageing process is strongly influenced by gender stereotypes, and alongside existing clichés, new ones are emerging, particularly in the media. “Old age can only be understood as a whole: it is not solely a biological, but also a cultural fact”, as Simone de Beauvoir wrote in The Coming of Age (1970). Around the same time, Susan Sontag spoke of the Double Standard of Ageing (1972), according to which women are not only considered ‘old’ by society earlier than men but being old and growing old are also viewed more negatively and rendered socially invisible. Since then, intersectional approaches to age and gender have become more nuanced and increasingly take into account the life courses of multiple genders, including queer ageing. Accordingly, not only is gender “done” (doing gender), but so is age (doing age), as well as ageing gender and gendered age in their intersectional interplay. Gender research and gerontology aim to establish an intersectional connection between biological, social and cultural aspects, examining the links between life stages and life situations, as well as the practices, discourses and normative expectations that create and (de)stabilise these. Against this background, we welcome contributions on theoretical and methodological issues, as well as empirical research findings from interdisciplinary gender studies – drawing on medicine, health and nursing sciences, the social sciences, history, education, cultural and media studies, as well as science and technology studies.

Possible questions/research topics

• How do life courses differ in the context of gender relations that are understood in intersectional terms? Which inequalities arise from transitions (or the absence thereof) for men, women, trans people and non-binary individuals? What role do transnational transitions and migration play?
• How and where do stereotypes and forms of discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation and age overlap?
• What are the findings and debates in medical, health and natural science research on health, the body, sexuality, care or advanced old age, and how are cultural constructions and social discourses on age and gender embedded in this research?
• How is ‘old age’ addressed in novels, films and the mass media, and what conclusions does cultural studies research draw regarding representations that go beyond heteronormative lifestyles?
• What impact do technologies have on existing gendered economies of medicine, health maintenance and care? Whose and which ageing lives do they enable, support or enhance?

Procedure and timetable

• Please submit a one- to two-page abstract by 29 November 2026. Non-German speakers are welcome to submit their articles in English.
• Please send your proposal as well as your manuscript as Word file to: manuskripte gender-zeitschrift de (subject: Special issue „Age(ing) and Gender”).
• Once your abstract has been assessed and judged suitable for this issue, you will receive an invitation to submit. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 17 December 2026. The deadline for submission of the final manuscript is 13 June 2027.
• Manuscripts must not exceed 50,000 characters (including space characters). A style sheet for authors is available at www.gender-zeitschrift.de/en/manuscripts.

All submissions will be reviewed in our double-blind peer review process based on which the final selection of contributions to be published will be made. The editors may give instructions to revise the contribution, which is the rule rather than the exception. In case of a high number of positively peer-reviewed contributions, the Editorial Department reserves the right to make a final selection of articles and to publish some contributions in a later issue.