No game for old (wo)men: Gender, age, and gaming in post-socialist Czechia—A qualitative case study

This article presents a qualitative case study of the gaming practices of eight retired women aged 65 and older in Czechia, a generation shaped by post-socialist technological histories and gendered expectations around aging. Drawing on intersectionality, the study shows how participants navigate gaming spaces without identifying as gamers, mobilizing play as a site of negotiation of aging femininity. The aim of this article is to describe forms of care-oriented and emotionally sustaining play through which older women claim autonomy and legitimacy within digital environments shaped by digital ageism and gendered assumptions. The article challenges universalizing and paternalistic frameworks commonly used to study older adults and argues for understanding later-life digital practices as culturally situated forms of agency that reconfigure dominant narratives of aging and/or gender.