Elderly women in a sparsely populated mountain area – victims in the periphery or central figures?

This study, based on participant observations and interviews, concerns  the present situation of the elderly women in Frostviken, a sparsely populated mountain-area in the  north of Sweden. What resources do these women have in order to achieve life-quality? Elderly women living in this part of the country is often described as victims in the periphery. In my study the elderly women have a central role in their community and in their net-work of relatives. They have high status because they stand out as symbols of the regional identity of Frostviken.  The widdows who chooses to stay at the farms after their husbands has passed away, are resources to their families and relatives. The farm with all it´s assets – for example the built-up week-end cottages, the hunting- and fishing licences connected to the farm and the roots way back to the culture of the first settlers – is central to the ideal of life in Frostviken. As the owner of the farm the elderly women exists in the middle of a large network of relatives who comes visiting from time to time. Her role as a story-teller with great knowledge of local- and family history further promotes her central position.