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Life-Course Influences on Extended Working: Experiences of Women in a UK Baby-Boom Birth Cohort

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  • Josephine M Wildman

Abstract

Combining feminist political economy and life-course perspectives, this mixed-methods study critically examines the extent to which extended working life policies take account of women’s experiences of paid and unpaid work. I explore how decisions to extend working life are shaped by gendered social structures and norms across the life course among women in the Newcastle Thousand Families Study, a UK early baby-boom birth cohort. Among this cohort of women currently transitioning into retirement, analysis of longitudinal survey data identifies a range of mid- and later-life factors that impact on the likelihood of women working beyond state-pension age. In-depth life-course interviews identify further complex and interacting gendered life-course experiences, not captured in the survey data, which act to necessitate, encourage, enable or constrain extended working. I conclude that, if women are to extend their working lives, ‘joined-up’ policies are required, addressing gendered inequalities across the life course.

Suggested Citation

  • Josephine M Wildman, 2020. "Life-Course Influences on Extended Working: Experiences of Women in a UK Baby-Boom Birth Cohort," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(2), pages 211-227, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:34:y:2020:i:2:p:211-227
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017019880077
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Joanne Duberley & Fiona Carmichael, 2016. "Career Pathways into Retirement in the UK: Linking Older Women's Pasts to the Present," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(6), pages 582-599, November.
    2. Martha Nussbaum, 2003. "Capabilities As Fundamental Entitlements: Sen And Social Justice," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(2-3), pages 33-59.
    3. Jacobs, Josephine C. & Laporte, Audrey & Van Houtven, Courtney H. & Coyte, Peter C., 2014. "Caregiving intensity and retirement status in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 74-82.
    4. Wildman, Josephine M. & Moffatt, Suzanne & Pearce, Mark, 2018. "Quality of life at the retirement transition: Life course pathways in an early ‘baby boom’ birth cohort," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 11-18.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chih-Hung Yuan & Dajiang Wang & Chuanyu Mao & Feixia Wu, 2020. "An Empirical Comparison of Graduate Entrepreneurs and Graduate Employees Based on Graduate Entrepreneurship Education and Career Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Christian Dudel & Elke Loichinger & Sebastian Klüsener & Harun Sulak & Mikko Myrskylä, 2021. "The extension of late working life in Germany: trends, inequalities, and the East-West divide," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2021-018, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. Valerie Egdell & Rima Hussein & Deborah Harrison & Anna Katharina Bader & Rob Wilson, 2023. "‘I Find it Daunting . . . That I’m Gonna Have to Deal with This until 60’: Extended Working Lives and the Sustainable Employability of Operational Firefighters," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(3), pages 721-739, June.
    4. Madero-Cabib, Ignacio & Biehl, Andres, 2021. "Lifetime employment–coresidential trajectories and extended working life in Chile," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 19(C).

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