Understanding gender inequality in employment and retirement

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the occupation-based inequalities of women and men in economically developed societies. The inequalities in their working lives lead to inequalities in retirement, and particularly the greater poverty endured by women. Occupational gender segregation, the tendency for women and men to work in different occupations, results in gender inequalities. The inequalities are measured by pay and class-status. The extent of the inequality in a country is measured as the vertical dimension of the occupational segregation, which varies appreciably across countries. In employment, men almost always have an advantage on the vertical dimension of pay, while on class-status the advantage lies with women. The gender inequalities in working lives carry over into retirement, though in a somewhat different manner. In retirement there is a wide range of experience from affluence to poverty, with a great many experiencing poverty. Those from lower class-status levels who earned too little to save for pensions, including those who worked part-time, suffer poverty in retirement. The occupational status advantage of women disappears, while their income disadvantage combines with greater life expectancy, with the consequence that women are among the majority of retired people in poverty.

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