Barriers and facilitators to extended working lives in Europe : a gender focus

Background: There is a global imperative to respond to the challenge of a growing ‘old-age dependency ratio’ by ensuring the workforce is healthy enough to remain in work for longer. Currently more than half of older workers leave before the default retirement age, and in some countries (e.g. the United Kingdom) the time spent in retirement is increasing. At the same time across Europe there is a gender employment gap, with 14.5% fewer female workers between 55-64 years old, and a large variation in the participation of older women in the workforce (ranging from 30%-75%). As older women are under-represented in the workforce, increasing employment in this group has the propensity to go some way towards reducing the old-age dependency ratio to ensure continued economic growth. Objectives: This review explores the barriers and facilitators to extended working lives in Europe, particularly those than impact on women. Methods: A systematic mapping review process was undertaken using four electronic databases, Medline, PsychoInfo, Psych Extra via Ovid and Age Line via EBSCO, using the terms, ‘work’, ‘ageing’, ‘retirement’, ‘pension’, ‘old’, ‘barrier’, ‘extended working life’, ‘gender’, ‘health and wellbeing’. Hand searching was also carried out in the Journal of Aging and Human Development and the Journal of Ageing and Society. Results: The search resulted in 15 English language studies published from 1st January 2005 to the current date that met the inclusion criteria. Key findings: The key factors that influenced decisions to retire or extend working lives in Europe, were health; social factors; workplace factors; and financial security and pension arrangements. Conclusions and implications of key findings: Health was found to be the most commonly cited barrier to extended working lives in Europe, and a number of social inequalities to work exist by gender. Structural factors exist, such as the gender pay gap, which disadvantage women, while the nature of work itself differs by gender and can have a negative impact on health. Currently women tend to exit the labour market earlier than men, however, changes in the state pension age are resulting in women being required to work for as long as men, in most countries. For women to remain healthy at work, workplaces need to consider a range of interventions, including flexible arrangements to both work and retirement to enable women to balance the demands of work with domestic and caring responsibilities that particularly impact on them

Germany: a successful reversal of early retirement?

Until the early 1990s German pension policy was based on a culture of “early retirement.” The result was that retiring before the official retirement age was more the rule than the exception. In the 1990s policymakers became aware of the financial burden this policy of “early retirement” in combination with the aging of the German society was causing and introduced several reforms with the aim of prolonging work life. Consequently, the actual retirement age is rising and older workers’ employment rates are increasing. Conversely, highly educated white-collar workers are the ones profiting most from the policy shift, suggesting the reemergence of social inequality in the transition from work to retirement

Kinderwunsch, Familie und Beruf

Im vorliegenden Text liegt der Fokus auf der Verwobenheit von Kinderwünschen, Anforderungen an Mutter- und Vaterschaft sowie den Berufsvorstellungen und -verläufen von Frauen und Männern. In einem ersten Schritt geht es um die Herausbildung der Vorstellungen von Weiblichkeit und Mutterschaft sowie Männlichkeit und Vaterschaft, wie sie sich im Zuge der Etablierung der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft entwickelt haben und das Bild von Familie bis heute prägen. Wie sich zeigt, sind diese Vorstellungen bei der Entwicklung eines Kinderwunsches und den Überlegungen, wie dieser gelebt werden kann, nach wie vor ein wichtiger normativer Bezugspunkt. Gleichzeitig lassen sich für beide Geschlechter auch neue Bedürfnisse bezogen auf Elternschaft feststellen, was für Männer wie für Frauen zu deutlichen Spannungen führt, wenn es darum geht, Elternschaft und Beruf zu vereinbaren. Gründe sind vor allem die gegenwärtigen Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen. Sie erlauben es derzeit kaum, Beruf und Familienleben entsprechend den eigenen Bedürfnissen und (Zeit-) Wünschen zu organisieren