Thirty years after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, which adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, establishing a comprehensive framework for advancing gender equality across multiple domains, older women remain insufficiently visible in global gender equality discussions. In the agreed conclusions of its sixty-fifth session in 2021, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) called on Member States to promote and protect the rights of older women by ensuring their equal access to social, legal and financial services, infrastructure, health care, social protection and economic resources, as well as their full and equal participation in decision-making. The focus area of the Commission’s seventieth session in 2026 on “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all older women” provides an opportunity to examine how demographic change intersects with gender equality. Anticipating the scale and characteristics of population ageing through a gender lens is essential for formulating effective, inclusive policies that respond to the specific circumstances of older women. Drawing on data from the World Population Prospects 2024 (United Nations, 2024) and additional relevant datasets, this policy brief examines key demographic trends related to older women and outlines their implications for policy development and evidence-based responses that fully acknowledge older women as rights holders and as essential contributors to sustainable development.