Women, Work and Pensions

Population ageing has fuelled interest in pensions and intergenerational equity, leading to privatization of pensions. Yet the gender implications of such policies and the connections between the gender contract and the generational contract remain unexplored. Women, Work and Pensions examines how women's paid and unpaid work, interacting with the gendered pension systems of six liberal welfare states - Britain, the US, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand - contributes to female poverty in later life. By comparing how these welfare states deal with women's employment, family roles and pension entitlement, the nature of the residual welfare model is better understood. Changes over the past three decades in the gender contract and in women's employment suggest that family caring may have less impact on women's pensions in the future. Yet pension reforms which diminish the effectiveness of women-friendly features in state pensions through cuts and privatization point in the opposite direction. This issue, and how the pension penalties of caring vary with women's class, ethnicity and birth cohort, are major themes of the book.

ISBN 0335205941   Pages 290 ISBN13 9780335205943 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Open University Press   Weight (grammes) 392 Imprint Open University Press   Published in Milton Keynes Format Paperback   Height (mm) 152 Publication date 01 Jul 2001   Width (mm) 229 Library of Congress 00050494   Spine width (mm) 15 DEWEY 331.4252   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC21

		Foreword
		List of figures
		List of tables
		Notes on contributors
		Acknowledgements
1		Engendering pensions: a comparative framework by Jay Ginn and Mary Daly and Debra Street		1
2		Cross-national trends in women's work by Jay Ginn and Debra Street and Sara Arber		11
3		The demographic debate: a gendered political economy of pensions by Debra Street and Jay Ginn		31
4		A colder pension climate for British women by Jay Ginn and Sara Arber		44
5		Modelling the gender impact of British pension reforms by Jane Falkingham and Katherine Rake		67
6		Women and pensions: perspective, motivations and choices by Kay Peggs and Mary Davies		86
7		Between means-testing and social insurance: women's pensions in Ireland by Mary Daly		103
8		Social insecurity? Women and pensions in the US by Debra Street and Janet Wilmoth		120
9		Perpetuating women's disadvantage: trends in US private pensions, 1976-95 by Angela M. O'Rand		142
10		Creeping selectivity in Canadian women's pensions by Debra Street and Ingrid Connidis		158
11		Pension reform in Australia: problematic gender equality by Sheila Shaver		179
12		The world's social laboratory: women friendly aspects of New Zealand pensions by Susan St. John and Brian Gran		199
13		Women's pension outlook: variations among liberal welfare states by Jay Ginn and Debra Street and Sara Arber		216
		Glossary of technical terms and abbreviations		236
		References		240
		Index		261

"!this is an important and stimulating book. I urge all those interested in pension reform to read it, whether students, researchers, or policy analysts within or outside government." -- Ageing & Society Ageing & Society 20031028 "...an excellent book that is both extremely timely and highly relevant. It should be of interest to many colleagues; especially those concerned with issues of social policy, feminist studies and gerontology." - Christina Victor Medical Sociology News 20030114

 Be the first to write a customer review