In this thesis, the subject of interpretation are the novels Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (2009) by Olga Tokarczuk, Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (2008) by Dubravka Ugrešić and My dowry (2021) by Nora Verde. In the first novel, the older woman character is also the protagonist and the (autodiegetic) narrator, while in the other two novels the older woman is the young narrator's focalization point. All three novels develop the older woman character who has a certain level of powerlessness in relation to both her surroundings and other characters and is therefore presented in an ironic mode. In this context, the powerlessness of the analysed characters is coded in a twofold way: regarding both age and gender. The age coding of powerlessness refers to the topic of old age and aging, and gender coding refers to the fact that the elderly characters are powerless toward other characters from the position of a woman. The interpretation aims to uncover the changes in the semantics of the text through a character who is developed in an ironic mode. The starting point of approaching each novel is a narratological analysis which aims to highlight the particularities in style, narration and plot development, as well as to uncover the particularities of certain character analyses – Janina Duszejko in Olga Tokarczuk's novel, Baba Jaga in Dubravka Ugrešić's novel and Baba in Nora Verde's novel.