Women’s retirement income in Germany and Britain

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

June 1, 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

Volume: 29 , p.968 -980

DOI

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

ISSN

2667215

Subjects

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

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