AGING WELL IN TIMES OF CRISIS? INEQUALITY, GENDER, AND ACCESS TO SPORTS: AN ANALYSIS BETWEEN SOCIAL WORK AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

Longevity, in contemporary discourse, is often associated with the adoption of healthy habits, such as regular physical exercise, a balanced diet, restorative sleep, and a series of pro-health protocols. However, this perspective tends to individualize a process that is profoundly determined by social, economic, and political conditions. By disregarding the reality of women in situations of poverty and violence, it becomes necessary to question to what extent such recommendations are, in fact, accessible for healthy aging. The insufficiency of public policies, income transfer programs, food security, and the guarantee of basic social rights imposes concrete limits on the possibility of aging with quality. In this context, practices such as sports and leisure, often treated as individual choices, reveal themselves as privileges socially distributed unequally. Thus, thinking about longevity requires shifting the focus from individual responsibility to the analysis of structural inequalities that condition access to the conditions necessary for a long and healthy life.