Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 32:4 (Autumn 2018)
Article: The Importance Of Age Norms When Considering Gender Issues
Author: Jason Eden

PP 32:4 (Autumn 2018) p. 8

The Importance Of Age Norms When Considering Gender Issues

Jason Eden

and Naomi Eden

Jason Eden holds an MA and PhD in history and is professor of history at St. Cloud State University.

Naomi Eden has earned dual master’s degrees in gerontology and in marriage and family therapy and works as a marriage and family therapist. They are coauthors of the 2017 book, Age Norms and Intercultural Interaction in Colonial North America. They are members of Riverside Evangelical Church (EPC) in Sartell, Minnesota.

Opal (grandmother of coauthor Naomi Eden) lived 104 years on this earth. A devout Christian woman, Opal gained prominence and authority within her rural Minnesota community as she advanced in age. She benefitted from an increasingly exalted status within her local church, as well as from deep respect from the small group of believers who met regularly in her home for prayer and Bible study. At Opal’s one-hundredth birthday celebration, the pastor of her Presbyterian church publicly stated that she knew more about the Bible than he did. In contradiction to many contemporary assumptions regarding the frailty of older persons, Opal remained lucid, lived in her own home, and took no medications right up to her 104th year of life.

When Opal was younger, it would have been unthinkable for her to hold as prominent a place within her church and community as the one she held in her older years. Yet, her advanced age offered her opportunities for leadership and teaching thought of as normal only for men in many Christian circles. What her case reveals is that age, as well as gender, often shapes Christian approaches to leadership, teaching, and living. What we often unquestioningly assume to be gender issues are actually layered questions related to a host of possible factors, including gender, ethnicity, and age.

We gained a new appreciation for the importance of age norms, not only because we visited Opal regularly, but also because we conducted extensive research while completing our recent book, Age Norms and Intercultural Interaction in Colonial North America.1 In our book, we show how various approaches to the aging process shaped life for Native Americans, African Americans, and Europeans in the territory that eventually became the United States. Again and again, whether examining children, youths, or older adults, we found that age norms and gender issues intersected in important and complex ways. Age and gender mattered greatly in Native American villages, African American slave communities, and European churches. Our findings led us to question how gender issues and age norms might cross paths in society today. In particular...