About

Since life expectancy has increased in most countries in recent decades, international policies and national governments have introduced policies designed to extend working lives in order to contain expected increases in pension costs. These policies include raising state pension age, discouraging early retirement and reducing the generosity of pension systems. Linked to this is the tendency to promote the individualization and privatization of pensions.

EWL policies have been introduced rather quickly, often without fully considering the impacts that such policies may have for the health and economic well-being of diverse groups of older workers, including men and women in precarious and secure occupations, or across different types of welfare state regimes. The gendered impacts of EWL policies are critically important, given the significant evidence that gender norms, roles and responsibilities result in specific challenges for older women. Despite a recent increase in labour force participation, older women workers have relatively poor economic outcomes in terms of earnings, pension-building and employment prospects. Gender discrimination is a common feature of labour markets, leading to the concentration of women and men in different occupations and with women clustered at lower levels with low pay and poor conditions. One consequence of this is that the gender gap in pension income in EU-27 countries was, on average 39%. The predominant involvement of women in unpaid care work means they have gaps from employment and pension-building and they have a higher risk of poverty in older age than men. It is crucial to analyse EWL policies from a gender perspective.

The order and timings of life transitions, such as moving from education to work to retirement, are vital to understanding the impact of extending working life. A central tenet of a life course research approach is that experience of earlier events forms the context of later events and decisions. States, through welfare policies, shape the policy context within which life course decisions are made and experienced. The concept of ‘linked-lives’ reminds us that individuals live in households and communities which condition their willingness and ability to extend their working lives. Consequently, it is important to examine policies which shape people’s lives at earlier stages, to clearly understand the context for decisions to continue or cease working in later life. A life course approach enables us to see how gender discrimination early in life may intersect with age discrimination later in life and exacerbate earnings and pension disadvantages for women.

Although governments are introducing EWL policies, there is evidence that for workers in certain occupations such as those involving heavy physical and/or emotional labour, it may be extremely physically challenging to continue to work. EWL policies may need to be modified to ensure that such workers are not disadvantaged.

Our goal is to ensure that policy-makers, implementers and stakeholders at international, national , local and organisational level become aware of the need to consider the gender impacts of EWL policy and where necessary to modify them and/or introduce innovative policies and good practice.