Gender, Ageing and Extended Working Life: Cross-National Perspectives

Description

Nations that are raising retirement ages appear to work on the assumption that there is appropriate employment available for people who are expected to retire later. 'Gender, ageing and extended working life' challenges both this narrative, and the gender-neutral way the expectation for extending working lives is presented in most policy-making circles. The international contributors to this book - part of the Ageing in a Global Context series - apply life-course approaches to understanding evolving definitions of work and retirement. They consider the range of transitions from paid work to retirement that are potentially different for women and men in different family circumstances and occupational locations, and offer solutions governments should consider to enable them to evaluate existing policies. Based on evidence from Australia, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, this is essential reading for researchers and students, and for policymakers who formulate and implement employment and pensions policy at national and international levels.

Aine Ni Leime is a Marie Sklodowska Curie International Outgoing Research Fellow at the National University of Ireland Galway. She conducts research on gender, ageing and work. Debra Street is Chair of the Department of Sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA. Sarah Vickerstaff is Professor of Work and Employment at the University of Kent, UK. Clary Krekula is Associated Professor of Sociology at Karlstad University, Sweden. She undertakes research on critical age studies and on organisational ageing. Wendy Loretto is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the University of Edinburgh Business School, UK. Her research focuses on the intersections between gender and age in employment.

"A compelling and much-needed analysis of the different challenges facing older women and men, as pressures to extend working lives intensify." David Lain, Brighton Business School "The 11 contributions challenge widely accepted assumptions about later-life work and retirement by grounding their reflections in empirical evidence from a range of national and international sources... Overall, this book offers a welcome, evidence-based perspective on extended working lives in which the arguments are inspired by rich empirical data." Ageing and Society