Australia

Although AustralianAustralian women’s labour force participationLabour force participation has increased sharply since the turn of the century, there is a dichotomy between their participation at the pre pension threshold of 65 and after. Women’s genderGender segregation segregationGender segregation in low waged occupations is institutionalised through the neoliberal policyPolicy/ies neoliberal of individual enterprise agreements, reinforcing gender wage gapsGender wage gap . In combination, the gendered healthHealth effectsHealth effects ofCaring, care, caregiving caregivingCaregiving , disrupted careers and the experience of precarityPrecarity shorten working lives, limiting wages and retirementRetirement income incomesIncome retirement/pension , ultimately impacting on women’s economic statusEconomic status and classClass . Some gender responsive initiatives through the courts have been instituted supporting flexibilityFlexibility requests to employersEmployers applied to workers over 50 and employment entitlements by workers employed as casuals. Yet the lack of proactive ‘joined up’ gender and age policies across multidimensional domains enables the contradiction between public policiesPolicy/ies public of women’s extending working lives and reality to persist.