The Red Hat Society: Exploring the role of play, liminality, and communitas in older women's lives.

There is an extensive literature on play. Yet, the role of play in older adults' lives has received limited attention. Strikingly absent is research on play and older women. Missing from the literature is how older women use play as a liminal context for social interaction and communitas. This is odd because by 2030 one in four American women will be over the age of sixty-five. The primary purpose of this study is to explore the roles of play, liminality, and communitas in older women's lives. The focus is the Red Hat Society, a social group for women over age 50 that fosters play and fun. Using qualitative interviews with focus groups and participant observation of a regional Red Hat Society event, the study highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of current conceptualizations of play, liminality, and communitas.