Journal Article

Women’s retirement income in Germany and Britain

Authors

Publication date

2013

Summary

This article analyses women’s retirement income in the context of two distinct welfare states. In addition to women’s employment history, we consider their marital history over the lifecourse as an important determinant of retirement income. We use longitudinal data for women born between 1930 and 1940 from the German Socio-Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Study. The results shed light on the mechanisms through which welfare states transmit gender inequality over the life course into retirement. In both countries, single women have higher retirement income than continuously married women. But there are also significant cross-country differences. In the corporatist-conservative German welfare state, marriage over the life course leads to greater dependence on a male breadwinner in retirement than in the liberal British welfare state.

Published in

European Sociological Review

Volume and page numbers

29 , 968 -980

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcs075

ISSN

16

Subjects

Older People, Welfare Benefits, and Income Dynamics

Links

http://serlib0.essex.ac.uk/record=b1614272~S5

Notes

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