Challenging Invisibility

Karen Scheib, trained both in gerontology and in pastoral care, has done extensive research in the care of women over the age of sixty. Through her research she reveals that women of this age often feel invisible, ignored by a society that constructs myths and stereotypes about old age and hides women. Yet these senior women experience a strong faith and a strong desire to express that faith in active ways. Working from a deeply theological framework and a strong reverence for older women, Scheib models ways that pastors and other care providers can recognize women's accomplishments and intentionality, and find ways to care for them as faithful people. She shows the relationship between individual women's lives and the wider social situation, and shows older women as they really are--full of life and faith.