INTRODUCTION: High rates of falls by elder people inevitably raise the demand for physical rehab in clinics. To efficiently cope with this, professional therapists should alert patients to preventive measures. However, they are people with different cultural and historical backgrounds and routines. OBJECTIVE: To point out gender distinctions as a strategy for understanding these individuals' daily lives. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Qualitative data gathering and analysis, from semi-structured interviews, looking for any hidden meaning of falls in daily life at home. Opinions were taken and eventually ran into categories as to reveal the elders' own ideas. RESULTS: The domestic fall is understood by women as a bad happening, right on their work space (home), thus raising a high level of concern, as it directly interferes with habits that are feminine and exclusive. To women, the fall jeopardizes their inner domain. Men, however, seem not to worry about falls, except when it prevents them from keeping linked to their proper masculine domain (the external milieu). CONCLUSION: By this approach, some real power relations can be outlined and understood. To the therapist, it helps to single out certain particulars that interfere with patients' prevention compliance pattern.
Gender; Aging; Physical therapy; Falls