Women, alone More women than men above the age of 50 live alone in New Zealand, and the number is rising. In Nelson-Tasman-Marlborough, where housing and living costs rate among the highest in the country, we asked three women what it’s like to survive on their own. Tracy Neal reports.
I
rish poet Oscar Wilde once said it is healthy to know how to be alone, and not defined by another.
Those who live alone say there are pluses and minuses – you get to watch your own television programmes late into the night, pick your own interior colour scheme, shop for your preferred food and choose your own holiday destinations. The drawbacks are lack of companionship, but are largely economic in a world where equal pay is still a pipedream for plenty. The legacy of this tends to show up down the track at about retirement age.
The report by Dr M Claire Dale and Susan St John says women are more likely to arrive at retirement without secure housing and have less savings because of caring duties and lower wages. They are therefore more likely to experience greatly restricted lifestyles in retirement. The 2018 Census shows the ratio of men living alone is higher across all age groups until the age of 55. From then, the graph switches rapidly, with women living alone far outnumbering men. Death of a spouse is the main reason, followed by divorce.
A Nelson City Council report shows most of Nelson’s older people currently own their own home, but home ownership rates are expected to be lower for older people in the future.
Nelson children’s songwriter and entertainer Kath Bee has spent much of her adult life devoted to entertaining young children.
A 2020 University of Auckland Business School report on women and retirement in a post Covid-19 world points to the economic disadvantages many women face as they near their mid-60s.
The 56-year-old lives alone, which she feels she has “done forever”, even though she had had partners with whom she has shared a home.
JOHN-PAUL POCHIN
18
October 2021
Children’s songwriter Kath Bee says the best part of living alone is having her own space and being able to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants.
