Research
You will find a complete range of our monographs, muti-authored and edited works including peer-reviewed, original scholarly research across the social sciences and aligned disciplines. We publish long and short form research and you can browse the complete Bristol University Press and Policy Press archive.
Policy Press also publishes policy reviews and polemic work which aim to challenge policy and practice in certain fields. These books have a practitioner in mind and are practical, accessible in style, as well as being academically sound and referenced.
Books: Research
Adopting a gender-sensitive approach, the chapter is designed to provide a diagnosis of the ageing process in Portugal and discuss the main implication of policies aimed at retaining older workers in the labour market. It also seeks to observe the impact of labour and pension reforms, as well as of the extensive cuts in welfare provisions on their working and living conditions. Some of the key topics address the gendered patterns over the life course associated with employment, unpaid care work, vulnerability to income poverty and material deprivation. It is argued that comprehensive national strategy has never been fully developed in terms of measures to implement an extended working life.
This chapter analyses the empirical landscape of older women’s working lives, which is shaped by connected structural disadvantages constituted by neoliberal institutions. It initially explains the recent Australian political discourse of ‘intergenerational equity’, which rationalises the government’s policy of prolonging working lives until the revised pension age of 70 in 2035. Yet older women are cumulatively disadvantaged within a ‘de-accumulation trajectory’ over the life course by a trinity of pillars: comparatively lower wages then men, institutional arrangements of pensions and government supported superannuation. The data analysis shows that gender wage gaps cascaded to increased pension dependency and superannuation gender gaps. Globalisation supported gendered industry career trajectories, with the highest gender wage gaps found in male-dominated professional and financial sector industries, while older women were concentrated in low-waged service industries. Finally, women’s lower participation within unemployment programs further limited their economic participation, undermining government policy directions of extending working lives.
This book provides a critical discussion of extended working life theory and policy from an international perspective. It discusses policy, practice and employment and pensions patterns in seven countries, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States from gender and life course perspectives. Raising retirement ages appear to work on the assumption that there is appropriate employment available for people who are expected to retire later. This book challenges this assumption, along with the gender-neutral way the expectation for extending working lives is presented in most policy-making circles. Part of the Ageing in a Global Context series, the international contributors 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 policy solutions governments should consider to enable them to evaluate existing policies.
Population-level factors associated with demographic ageing and policies intended to encourage older workers to extend working lives in Australia, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, UK and US are documented in this chapter. Data are from international sources (mainly the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the CIA Factbook, to ensure comparability) derived from government agencies in the seven countries covered in this volume. Presenting population-level data for each country gives readers a starting point for considering how each nation compares to the others analysed in the later country chapters. Data related to demographic ageing, including patterns in longevity, proportion of national populations aged 65+, and country-specific dependency ratios are presented first. These set the stage for understanding the potential gendered implications of demands for older workers to postpone retirement and extend their working lives. Additional comparative data provided in this chapter include nation-specific patterns of women’s and men’s labour force participation, gender pay and gender pension gaps, typical retirement ages, and a summary of older worker’s recent experiences in the labour market. Patterns of unpaid care work, time use, and full-time versus part-time employment are also compared to provide a foundation against which readers can assess the prospects for older workers in general, and the particular disadvantages faced by older women in particular, when governments demand that individuals postpone retirement and work longer.
This chapter discusses extended working life policies in Ireland from a critical gender and life course perspective. It provides a contextualised discussion of the current nature of women’s participation in the labour market, including diversity of occupation and employment status and family friendly policies and discuss how this shapes pension provision. The structure of the pension system is outlined describing women’s current outcomes in terms of the type and level of pensions. Next is a discussion of reforms that have been introduced to pensions and employment policy and a consideration of the likely gender implications of these reforms, drawing on experiences in other countries and the OECD’s projections. Finally, undertaking new analysis of the most recent data available, the impact of the recession, particularly on precarious employment among older workers is assessed and the impact of health disparities on employment and pension prospects is considered. Possible alternative policy approaches and/or modifications that would ensure that gender equality as well as cost-containment is pursued, are considered.
This book provides a critical discussion of extended working life theory and policy from an international perspective. It discusses policy, practice and employment and pensions patterns in seven countries, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States from gender and life course perspectives. Raising retirement ages appear to work on the assumption that there is appropriate employment available for people who are expected to retire later. This book challenges this assumption, along with the gender-neutral way the expectation for extending working lives is presented in most policy-making circles. Part of the Ageing in a Global Context series, the international contributors 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 policy solutions governments should consider to enable them to evaluate existing policies.
Many policy areas of the German welfare state that are important for understanding the gendered implications of extended working lives have been reformed over the years-not only employment and pensions, but also child and long-term care. The country has been perceived as successful in especially turning a pronounced early retirement culture around. In this chapter a feminist political economy of ageing and life course perspective is applied, which shows a more differentiated picture, one that does not show a success story for all. Especially women and lower qualified person work part-time in later stages of their career or leave the labour market before state pension age, which is disadvantageous in social insurance countries, such as Germany. It is expected that old age incomes will become more polarised and old age poverty will grow.
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.
This chapter documents international policy developments and provides a gender critique of retirement, employment and pension policies in Australia, Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, the UK, and the US. It assesses the degree to which the individual country’s extended working life policies have adopted the agenda (increasing pension age and introducing flexible working) set out by the OECD and the EU. Policies include raising state pension age, changes in the duration of pension contribution requirements, the move from defined benefits to defined contribution pensions, policies on caring for vulnerable members of the population, policies enabling flexible working and anti-age discrimination measures. An expanded framework is used to assess the degree to which gender and other intersecting issues such as health, caring, class, type of occupation and/or membership of minority communities have (or have not) been taken into account in designing and implementing policies extending working life.
The conclusion briefly summarises the contributions of each of the individual country chapters; to highlight major cross-national similarities and differences; to emphasise topics where more research is needed to better understand the myriad implications of extended working lives, and to consider some policy directions that could improve prospects for extended working life by countering the increasing polarisation of later life opportunities which current policy trajectories will create. While not denying the materially better conditions in Sweden or the United States than, say, Portugal or Ireland, there is not as much variation across the countries covered as might otherwise have been expected when extended working life is considered through a gendered lens. If older women’s disadvantage is to be minimised or addressed, it is certain that the private sector alone cannot accomplish that. Only governments can redistribute resources and life chances in ways that would give future women (and vulnerable men) a fighting chance at good employment in later life and adequate income in old age.
